A Social Competence Curriculum for Toddlers and Preschoolers Demonstrating Mental Health and Behavioral Problems

Overview

The Social Competence Curriculum project focuses on the implementation of a social competence curriculum with toddler age children (24-36 months) who display mental health issues that put them at risk for early intervention and special education enrollment. The curriculum, Play Tools for Toddlers, has both a parent component and a classroom component to be implemented in child care settings. The parent component of the curriculum focuses on enhancing the quality of the parent-child relationship, providing information to shape a family’s attitude, beliefs and knowledge about their child’s peer relationships, increasing the child’s social network, and enhancing the family’s social support network.

The classroom component focuses on a hierarchical model of social competence organized around three social tasks: peer group entry, conflict resolution and maintaining play. The curriculum contains assessment tools as well as content and methodology that relies on responsive teaching techniques. Two studies have been designed to assess the effectiveness of this curriculum. Study I is an experimental design that looks at child and family outcome measures. Study II is a validation study evaluating the degree to which a newly revised social competence curriculum effectively targets young children’s social skills.

 

Major Activities

• Develop and facilitate an appropriate curriculum which will enhance a child's ability to negotiate his world and develop appropriate interpersonal behaviors and social skills with other children
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the social competence curriculum according to child and family outcomes
• Document the efficacy of a curriculum approach focused on social competence with toddler age children at risk for disabilities attending a child care program
• Train childcare staff and family members on the use of effective intervention strategies for young children with behavior concerns.
  
  

Highlights

The Social Competence Curriculum for Toddlers and Preschoolers Demonstrating Mental Health and Behavioral Problems project has developed and newly revised the social competence curriculum, Play Tools for Learning: A Social Competence Curriculum for Young Children. The project has also developed an assessment tool, Play Tools for Learning Assessment of Social Competence, to compliment the curriculum. The primary goal of the curriculum is to promote the development of social competence skills in young children with disabilities or who are at risk for developmental delays within a child’s natural environments. A wide range of social competence skills will be facilitated within ongoing daily routines and activities through systematic arrangement of physical and social environments, and use of effective teaching strategies. The Play Tools for Learning Assessment of Social Competence (ASC) is designed as a curriculum-based assessment tool. Information gathered from the ASC can serve as a good starting point from which to design possible interventions for the child to enhance his/her social skills and peer relations.

The Play Tools for Learning: A Social Competence Curriculum for Young Children is currently being validated. Project staff is working with two childcare centers in the Farmington, Connecticut area to implement the curriculum and collect child assessment data. Through the validation study children age 24 through 42 months are evaluated using the Battelle Developmental Inventory, the Assessment of Social Competence, the Social Status Questionnaire, Teachers Report of Children’s Behavior, and Friendship Survey for Teachers.

Young children’s social competence skills are like building blocks through which they gradually develop social competence with peers. These skills also provide the foundation for children’s further development of social competence and formation of friendships in later school years.

 

Contacts

Mary Beth Bruder, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, UConn Center for Excellence in Disabilities
Phone: (860) 679.1500
E-mail: Bruder@nso1.uchc.edu