Abstract:
Young children with developmental delays demonstrate lack of developmental skills, such as cognitive, social, and languages, which impede their opportunities to develop social and emotional competence. Social skills interventions for young children with developmental delays are critical to develop age-appropriate skills and behaviors, thereby developing social and emotional competence. This single subject research study was designed to examine the functional relation of gesture-based video gaming using Xbox Kinect 360 to promote social skills for young children with developmental delays in preschool settings. A multiple baseline design across participants was employed to investigate the use of gesture-based video gaming as an intervention tool for preschool children with developmental delays. Six student participants received the XbK intervention to improve three target skills, including accurate gesture imitation, visual attention during play, and turn taking. Three professionals provided their perspectives and opinions through the social validity interviews related to the use of gesture-based video gaming for social skills intervention. Overall, the results of the study indicated that student participants showed increases of three target social skills and the improvements were immediate when the XbK intervention was introduced. All participants also maintained these target skills two weeks after the intervention. Furthermore, social validity interviews with professional participants suggested that the use of gesture based video gaming is feasible to implement in the classroom setting and socially significant. This study provided preliminary findings that gesture-based video gaming activities may be incorporated into social skills interventions to develop various behavioral skills for young children with disabilities in educational and clinical settings.
