Social Coordination as a Component of Social Competence in Young Children with Disabilities

Abstract

Substantial evidence shows that young children with disabilities frequently have difficulty with social interaction (Guralnick & Weinhouse, 1984). Although the interactions of children with disabilities and their peers do not seem to be any more negative than the interactions of nondisabled children and their peers, evidence suggests that the overall frequency of interactions is much lower (Beckman, 1983;Guralnick, 1990;Guralnick & Weinhouse, 1984). For example, Beckman (1983) found that preschool children with disabilities engaged in fewer and shorter behavior chains than their nondisabled peers. One reason may be that longer interchanges depend on more sophisticated social skills including the ability to coordinate social behavior with that of a partner. From our perspective, social coordination should be distinguished from social interaction. Whereas social interaction includes any exchange that occurs between partners, social coordination requires additional sophistication.In this article we review what is currently known about social coordination in young children with disabilities. A discussion of the role of social coordination in developing social competence is followed by a description of how social coordination develops in children with and without disabilities. Next we discuss how available assessments of social skills address the concept of social coordination. Finally we identify intervention strategies that may be useful in facilitating social coordination. THE IMPORTANCE OF COORDINATING SOCIAL BEHAVIOROne important component of social competence that is associated with more sophisticated behavioral exchanges between children involves the ability to coordinate behavior with that of a partner. For example, social coordination occurs when a toddler looks at her partner, points to a toy, makes a sound, then looks back at her partner. The toddler and her partner are simultaneously coordinating their attention to each other and to an object. Thus, social coordination requires the ability to coordinate the focus of attention, the timing, and the sequence of behaviors with that of a social partner.

Ecological Features of Preschools and the Social Engagement of Children With Autism

“…Kim et al (2003) found that children with disabilities engaged in more solitary play behaviors and nonplay behaviors than peers who were typically developing. In addition, children with developmental disabilities tended to engage in more symbolic, complex play when they were alone rather than when peers were present (Lieber & Beckman, 1991), indicating that when social interactions with peers are possible, children with developmental disabilities like ASD may not participate in socially oriented play behaviors, thus missing opportunities to engage in social interactions.…”

Interaction of Social and Play Behaviors in Preschoolers With and Without Pervasive Developmental Disorder

“…The SocBS. The selection of the specific behaviors used to create this scale was informed by cognitivedevelopmental theory and related descriptive studies of children's social behaviors (Bailey et al, 1993;Lieber & Beckman, 1991b;Odom & Ogawa, 1992;Parten, 1932). We began with an analysis of Parten's Scale of Social Participation (1932), which is widely used in contemporary research to examine social or social communicative behavior in a play context (Bailey et al, 1993;Craig-Unkefer & Kaiser, 2003;Farver, Kim, & Lee, 1995).…”

“…Although we were able to adopt Parten's less complex social measures (e.g., Solitary, Onlooking) for this study, we needed to replace her more complex measures (e.g., Associative, Cooperative) to disentangle the quality of social interaction from the quality of play activity. We determined that the social behaviors that were more complex than Onlooking could be distinguished based on the presence or absence of social coordination (Lieber & Beckman, 1991b). We therefore added the new categories of Uncoordinated Social and Coordinated Social to Parten's categories of Onlooking and Solitary activity.…”

“…The SocBS measured the occurrence/nonoccurrence of social coordination with social behaviors such as talking, sharing objects, and making physical contact. Because socially coordinated behaviors emerge in the toddler years (Lieber & Beckman, 1991b;Eckerman et al, 1989), their occurrence was expected, given the children's minimum developmental levels. Thus, the children were evaluated on the occurrence/nonoccurrence of essentially the same behaviors, independent of their developmental levels.…”

“…Empirical studies have demonstrated that developments in social behaviors are related to developments in play for children with and without disabilities (Fewell & Kaminski, 1988;File, 1994;Odom & Ogawa, 1992). Coordination of social behavior with play in development is regarded as a critical component of social development (Eckerman, Davis, & Didow, 1989;Howes & Matheson, 1992;Lieber & Beckman, 1991b). Various factors can affect the manifestation and coordination of social and play behaviors.…”