The Assessment of Change in Social Interaction through Observation

Abstract

The study of social interaction within the classroom is an important task because of the the influence that early social relationships have in the social and personal development of a person. In this paper we present a study where a specific intervention is implemented to improve the social interaction of one participant in an outside school enrichment program. A single-case design AB is used with this propose. The measurement of the changes is done through observation, using the Observational Protocol for Social Interaction within the Classroom (OPINTEC, v. 4). Three sessions are observed during the program in order to analyze the individual progress of the participant during the intervention. Lag Sequential Analysis with the program SDIS-GSEQ (Bakeman & Quera, 1996) is used for the assessment of the behavioral patterns. Results indicate an improvement in the relations between the participant and his peers in those interactions related with academic topics.