Abstract
Teachers are responsible for providing opportunities for children to learn, succeed, and grow academically and socially. Small group instruction is one effective option for encouraging academic and social skills in young children. For example, young children often display difficulties sitting and listening to a teacher or waiting for peers to take a turn, but these behaviors are often highly valued by kindergarten teachers. Small group instruction prepares children for elementary school and later grades, specifically by teaching children how to learn. Urlacher, Wolery, and Ledford (2016) found that preschoolers with and without special needs could learn to name sight words and practice social skills (make a comment to a peer) during the same brief sessions (10 min each). Children participated in these sessions in the classrooms while sitting at a table, on the floor, or on the playground. Three children participated in each session, and each child learned two different sight words. Once a child learned to name his or her two sight words, the teacher taught two more sight words to him or her. Having each child receive instruction on different sight words allowed all children opportunities to learn the sight words being taught to their peers. Thus, children learned new words simply by observing their peer learn to name sight words.
During instruction, the teacher provided each child six opportunities to name sight words: three opportunities per sight word and 18 total opportunities per session. To teach the children how to name the sight words, the instructor used a progressive time delay (PTD; see Collins, 2012) response prompting procedure. For each opportunity, the teacher presented a sight word on a flashcard and asked, “What’s that word?” For the first two sessions, the teacher immediately showed each child how to be correct by asking the question and immediately providing the correct answer (also known as a response prompt). After those two sessions, the teacher increased the amount of time between the question and prompt by 1 s. As children responded correctly with or without help, the teacher again increased the amount of time between the question and prompt, waiting 2 s before providing the correct answer and then 3 s, until finally stopping at 4 s. This slow increase allowed children time to learn to respond correctly when the teacher presented a sight word.
To teach social skills, Urlacher and colleagues taught peers with typical development to make comments to other peers in the group when they received a token for a correct academic answer (e.g., “Wow, that’s cool!”). The teacher also taught the peers to respond to comments made by other peers during instruction. Correct responses referred to anytime a child named the sight word without assistance or waited and then named the sight word when the teacher provided the correct answer. Before each small group session began, the teacher reminded children with typical development to comment to peers and respond to comments. When young children with disabilities had multiple opportunities to watch their peers comment, they often started commenting too.
Given that young children with disabilities may require many opportunities to learn social skills, teachers can begin by instructing children how and when to use these behaviors in a small group. Teachers can provide extra support at other times of the day if they do not observe changes in the children’s social skills. The study by Urlacher and colleagues highlights the importance of planning for and including small group instruction as a part of the day, to promote not only academic skills but also social skills. Although small group instruction is less common in preschools, such sessions can occur for brief time periods once a day, allowing children ample time to play and explore with peers. Teachers who include brief small group sessions during the day are investing in children’s future by promoting behaviors that lead to success across the life span.
Targeting Academic and Social Skills During Small Group Instruction
Sample Data Sheet
Target behaviors
When presented with a sight word in isolation and a task direction, the child will independently label the word within 4 s.
When presented with a token or a comment from a peer, the child will independently look at a peer and comment to peer about the token or respond to peer’s comment within 4 s.
I = Independent
P = Prompted
E = Error
Session #: ___ Time-delay: ___________
Time-delay for next session: _______
Sample Completed Data Sheet
Target behaviors
When presented with a sight word in isolation and a task direction, the child will independently label the word within 4 s.
When presented with a token or a comment from a peer, the child will independently look at a peer and comment to peer about the token or respond to peer’s comment within 4 s.
I = Independent
P = Prompted
E = Error
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.