Effectiveness of teaching communication skills on acting out behaviors among four year olds in an inner-city day care center.

The purpose of this project was to determine the effectiveness of teaching communication skills to preschool children in an inner city day care center. The sample consisted of Black four year olds who had attended the center for at least one year prior to the beginning of the project. An observation guide, consisting of a hierarchical arrangement of ineffective responses, was used to obtain the frequency of inappropriate behaviors before and after formal teaching sessions on communication skills. The Minnesota Model of Communication provided the framework for structured teaching sessions. There was a difference between the total number of acting out behaviors observed before and after implementation of the teaching programs. Also there was a difference between pre and post observations for each day of the week. Findings suggest that formal instruction in communication skills may be one viable approach to decreasing acting out behaviors among young children in day care centers.