Comparing Effects of Stay-Play-Talk With or Without Reinforcement on Children’s Social Behaviors

Stay-Play-Talk (SPT) is a peer-mediated intervention where peers are taught to stay, play, and talk with buddies during typical classroom activities. This U.S. study replicates and extends findings of previous SPT studies by examining the differential outcomes of SPT and SPT with reinforcement, for children who are emergent bilingual learners and socially isolated. The differentiation of levels of stay, play, and talk behaviors was evaluated, within an alternating treatments design, across three experimental conditions (SPT + Reinforcement, SPT, business-as-usual [BAU]). Following baseline (i.e., BAU), during which typical classroom activities occurred, focal participants and peer implementers were trained on SPT strategies. During both SPT and SPT + Reinforcement conditions, peer implementers were paired with focal participants for Buddy Time. The system of least prompts was used to support peer implementer use of SPT strategies. In the SPT + Reinforcement condition, peer implementers had access to reinforcers contingent on use of SPT strategies. Both SPT conditions resulted in increased levels of stay, play, and talk, compared to the BAU condition, with SPT + Reinforcement resulting in more consistent and slightly higher levels of play duration and talk. Peer implementer fidelity was higher in the SPT + Reinforcement condition. Increases in play duration were maintained across implementers. Results, limitations, implications, and next steps are discussed.