THE EFFECTS OF A STAY-PLAY-TALK INTERVENTION ON SOCIAL COMMUNICATIVE ACTS FOR ELEMENTARY AGED CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Stay-Play-Talk (SPT) intervention for increasing the rate of peer interactions among elementary-aged students who display social deficits or delays in a free-time small group setting. Peermediated instruction (PMI) is used to teach typically developing peers’ ways to interact with and help learners with disabilities acquire or increase social skills by increasing social opportunities within natural environments. With PMI, peers are systematically taught ways of engaging learners with disabilities in social interactions (Neitzel, 2008). PMIs are designed to support target children without interrupting the natural interactions between peers. One PMI is Stay-Play-Talk. In SPT, Peers are taught to use three strategies: stay near their buddy (i.e., target child), play with the materials/toys in the play area with their buddy, and talk to their buddy about what they are doing with the toys (Ledford et al., 2016). Results indicated that the peer mediated instruction of stay-playtalk was effective in increasing the rate of peer interactions among elementary-aged students who display social deficits.