Peer-mediated social-skills training and generalization in group homes

Abstract

A multiple baseline across subjects design was used to evaluate generalization effects of a peer‐tutoring procedure to teach social skills for individuals with developmental disabilities. Three residents with poor social skills living in community‐based group homes served as participants in this study. Generalization data were collected during four conditions: (i) baseline (ii) social‐skills training by therapist (iii) social‐skills training by peer‐tutor, and (iv) follow‐up. Results demonstrated that participants did not generalize trained social skills to untrained settings (i.e., living room of a group home and community bowling alley) until the first participant was trained as a peer‐tutor to train two other participants. These results were maintained 6 months after training was withdrawn. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.