The Effects of Tootling on Complimenting and Peer Prompting in Second‐Grade Students

ABSTRACT

Tootling interventions can enhance students' social skill performance outside the social skill training environment. With Tootling interventions, group‐oriented rewards are delivered contingent upon the number of reports students provide of their peers' engagement in prosocial behavior(s). An A‐B‐A‐B withdrawal design was used to evaluate the effects of Tootling on complimenting peers and peer prompting as a group of five second‐grade students played a math game. Visual and effect‐size analyses of our data showed higher rates of complimenting and peer‐prompting when the Tootling intervention was applied. Across intervention sessions, complimenting and peer prompting were positively correlated, and this correlation was statistically significant. These results extend previous research and suggest that positive peer mediation (e.g., prompting) may partially explain why Tootling interventions increase students' performance of recently trained social skills. The discussion focuses on future research designed to enhance the impact of Tootling interventions, positive peer mediation, and students' social skill development.