Using A Tootling Intervention to Sequentially Enhance and Maintain At-Risk Elementary Students' Performance of Multiple Social Skills

• Published in: School psychology 2022-05, Vol.37 (3), p.248-258
• Main Authors: Wright, Shelby, Skinner, Christopher H., Crewdson, Margaret, Moore, Tara, McCurdy, Merilee, Coleman, Mari Beth, Rocconi, Louis M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; At Risk Populations; At Risk Students; Behavior Modification; Educational psychology; Elementary School Students; Female; Human; Interdependence; Interpersonal Competence; Intervention; Male; Peer Report; Peers; Positive Reinforcement; Program Effectiveness; Prosocial Behavior; Rewards; School Based Intervention; Social Behavior; Social Emotional Learning; Social interaction; Social Skills; Social Skills Training; Student Behavior
• ISSN: 2578-4218; 2578-4226
• DOI: 10.1037/spq0000499

The present study was designed to extend research on supplementing social skills training (SST) with a Tootling intervention to enhance student performance of social skills in authentic social contexts. The Tootling intervention included an interdependent group contingency with randomly selected criteria, which involved the after-school class receiving rewards contingent upon students reporting classmates' performance of prosocial behaviors as they participated in a typical school activity. First, reinforcement was delivered contingent upon peer reports of classmates' giving compliments. In subsequent phases, peer reports of classmates providing encouragement and saying thank you were added to the contingency, but each day students did not know which of these behaviors was selected as the criterion for reinforcement. Results from our multiple baseline across behaviors design provided three demonstrations of a treatment effect. When peer reports of each social skill were added to the contingency, the targeted social behavior increased. Discussion focuses on supplementing SST with Tootling interventions to enhance student performance of prosocial behaviors outside the SST context. Impact and Implications Elementary students often monitor and report their classmates' antisocial behavior-they tattle. We taught students' prosocial behaviors (complimenting and encouraging peers and saying thank you) and reinforced them for tootling or reporting when classmates engaged in these prosocial behaviors. After the Tootling intervention was applied to each behavior, students increased their performance of these behaviors as they played.