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1. Knowledge Database
• Slide Presentation for the lecture of: Joanna Smogorzewska
Academy of Special Education, Poland
• Topic of lecture: Developing Social Skills through Play the
Effectiveness of Play Time/ Social Time Program
• The lecture was given at Beit Issie Shapiro’s 6th International
Conference on Disabilities - Israel
• Year: 2015

2. Developing Social Skills
through Play:
the Effectiveness of the “Play
Time/Social Time” program
Joanna Smogorzewska
Grzegorz Szumski
University of Special Education, Warsaw, Poland

3. Why we study the effectiveness of programs which
develop social skills?
- It is important to use such methods which effectiveness
was proved empirically,
- In Poland, despite a great need, there is a lack of
programs which are design to develop social skills of
young children. Especially, there is very few programs,
which can be used in integrative and inclusive groups.

4. Play Time/Social Time Program
(Odom et al., 1997)
1. For who?
- Children aged 3 to 5(6),
- Children, who learn in inclusive, integrative or special
preschool,
- Children with and without disability; children who
suffer from the lack of social skills, children at risk of
developmental problems.

5. 2. Main aims of the program:
- Developing social skills,
- Teaching proper interactions with peers,
- Increasing young children’s social competence.

6. 3. The method:
- Teaching proper behaviours via imitating behaviours
of peers without disability,
- Modifying environment (e.g. Designing special places
for playing, giving ideas for mildly structuralised play,
integrating children with and without disability),

7. 3. The method:
- Focusing on the child (first of all on the child with
disability):
• Structured play in pairs,
• Play encouragement through focusing on children who
are the main targets of the program,
• Reinforcement of positive behaviours,
• Assessment of interactions between children.

8. 4. Benefits of the program
(according to our earlier results):
-Teaching proper behaviours in natural environment,
learning from more competent peers (which is more
effective than learning from adults),
-Widening the repertoire of children’s plays,
-Increasing frequency of social interactions of
pre-schoolers with disability,

9. - Increasing the number of prosocial behaviours and the
willingness of participations in interactions among children
with disabilities as well as among children without
disability,
- Easy implementation - the program can be implemented as
planned actions because it is based on materials which are
available in preschools’ rooms.

10. The assessment of effectiveness
-Repeated (three times) assessment of development of
children’s social skills (Teacher’s Impression Scale
(Odom et al., 1997), Cronbach’s Alfa = .97 [16 items],
Taxonomy of Problematic Social Situations (Dodge et. al.,
1985), Cronbach’s Alfa = .97 [44 items]) (change in time),
-Repeated (three times) assessment of development of
children’s “theory of mind” (change in time), Cronbach’s
Alfa = .66 [7 items],
-Results’ comparison between children in experimental
and control groups (differences between groups).

11. Sample
- 10 preschools in Warsaw, Poland,
- In summary 10 experimental groups and 10 control
groups,
- 249 children age 3 to 6 (M = 4.7, SD = 0.99),
with and without disability.

12. Sample
128
121
Experimental(Play
Time/ Social Time)
Control

13. Sample
Children with Disability: children with ASD, ID, hearing and
visual impairment, and physical disability

14. Social Skills 1 (Teacher’s Impression Scale)
56.54
(17.73)
58.72
(17.86)
59.81
(16.27)
60.96
(16.15)
68.11
(12.46)
63.77
(14.89)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Play Time/ Social Time Control
Measurement 1
Measurement 2
Measurement 3
Time: F(2, 464) = 154.50; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.4
Method: F(1, 232) = 0.027; p = ns.
Time*Method: F(2, 464) = 26.38; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.1

15. Social Skills 1 (Teacher’s Impression Scale) –
Children with Disability
44.17
(15.93)
43.85
(14.10)
48.34
(15.55)
48
(14.32)
58.1
(12.8)
49.23
(14.74)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Play Time/ Social Time Control
Measurement 1
Measurement 2
Measurement 3
Time: F(2, 106) = 63.173; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.54
Method: F(1, 53) = 0.69; p = ns.
Time*Method: F(2, 106) = 16.351; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.24

16. Social Skills 2 (Taxonomy of Problematic Social
Situations)
2.61
(0.72)
2.57
(0.67)
2.53
(0.72)
2.43
(0.64)
2.2
(0.67)
2.3
(0.66)
1.9
2
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
Play Time/ Social Time Control
Measurement 1
Measurement 2
Measurement 3
Time: F(2, 494) = 91,42; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.27
Method: F(1, 247) = 0.01 ; p = ns.
Time*Method: F(2, 494) = 8.362; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.03

17. Social Skills 2 (Taxonomy of Problematic Social
Situations) – Children with Disability
2.89
(0.59) 2.5
(0.52)2.79
(0.66) 2.39
(0.45)
2.42
(0.55) 2.44
(0.46)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Play Time/ Social Time Control
Measurement 1
Measurement 2
Measurement 3
Time: F(2, 106) = 15.44; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.23
Method: F(1, 53) = 3.56; p = ns.
Time*Method: F(2, 106) = 12.55; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.91

18. Theory of Mind
3.09
(1.59)
2.79
(1.79)
3.61
(1.68)
2.98
(1.66)
3.95
(1.57) 3.26
(1.68)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Play Time/ Social Time Control
Measurement 1
Measurement 2
Measurement 3
Time: F(2, 248) = 19.36; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.14
Method: F(1, 124) = 4,035; p = .04; eta2 = 0.03
Time*Method: F(2, 248) = 19.2; p = ns.

19. Theory of Mind – Children with Disability
2.24
(1.51)
1.93
(1.88)
2.52
(1.48) 2.07
(1.61)
2.88
(1.48) 2.46
(1.77)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Play Time/ Social Time Control
Measurement 1
Measurement 2
Measurement 3
Time: F(2, 102) = 5.40; p = .006; eta2 = 0.096
Method: F(1, 51) = 0.97; p = ns.
Time*Method: F(2, 10) = 0.07; p = ns.

20. Conclusions
•In both groups there are positive changes in time in social
skills and in theory of mind development,
•The changes are more positive in experimental group and
the strength of the effect in the most cases is moderate,
•The results are especially positive for children with
disabilities, who are the main targets of the program,
•It means that „Play Time/Social Time” is effective for
developing social skills among preschool children.

21. Thank you very much for your
attention