Social Skills Training for ADHD: Single-Subject Design
This paper outlines a single-subject experimental design (SSD) using an AB approach to evaluate the effectiveness of social skills training as a psychoeducational intervention for a 12-year-old boy diagnosed with ADHD. The paper describes the intervention protocol, including role-playing activities and daily one-hour sessions conducted by a classroom teacher over two to six weeks. It addresses measurement of treatment fidelity, baseline and intervention phases, and data collection using the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). The study aims to determine whether targeted social skills training can reduce aggressive and disruptive classroom behavior while promoting positive behavioral outcomes at school and at home.
- Introduction and Intervention Description: Psychoeducation and social skills training protocol overview
- Measurement of Fidelity to Treatment: Treatment integrity and differentiation fidelity elements
- SSD Approach: AB Design: Rationale for true experiment AB design selection
- Baseline and Intervention Phases: Baseline behavior and teacher-led session structure
- Data Collection and Evidence Gathering: SSRS tool and multi-rater behavioral outcome evaluation
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper maintains a clear, logical progression from intervention description to design rationale to data collection, making the study protocol easy to follow.
- Each section grounds its claims in peer-reviewed citations, lending credibility to methodological choices such as the SSRS tool and the AB design approach.
- The paper integrates real-world context — legal, ethical, and ADA considerations — to justify why the teacher serves as the intervention provider, demonstrating applied awareness.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied single-subject experimental design reasoning, linking the selection of an AB design directly to the study's purpose. Rather than simply naming the design, the author explains why no control condition is needed and how baseline behavior functions as the comparison point — a crucial distinction in SSD methodology.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a structured research-protocol format with five distinct sections: (1) intervention description, (2) fidelity measurement, (3) design selection and rationale, (4) baseline and intervention phase descriptions, and (5) data collection methods. This mirrors the organizational logic of an applied behavioral research proposal, making it useful as a model for undergraduate research methods writing.
Introduction and Intervention Description
Psychoeducation — more specifically, social skills training — is considered the most appropriate intervention for the selected subject, a 12-year-old Black boy. The teacher could employ social skills training because the student is exhibiting disruptive behavior in the classroom, engaging in self-harmful actions, and disturbing the rest of the students. Talking excessively and becoming aggressive easily are risky behaviors resulting from his ADHD that need to be addressed through a structured intervention.
Social skills training is planned to incorporate role-playing activities alongside informational education about social skills and how they should be used effectively (WWC Intervention Report, 2013). The training could span two to six weeks, depending on the results (WWC Intervention Report, 2013). One hour daily would be allocated for the intervention, which could also be conducted in a small group — for example, pairing the 12-year-old boy with another child — while keeping inclusivity in mind.
Measurement of Fidelity to Treatment
Although there would be no control condition in this interventional study, two elements would be considered to measure treatment fidelity (Hildebrand et al., 2012). First, treatment integrity must be high, which requires that the therapist — in this case, primarily the teacher who would be disseminating information and conducting social skills training activities in the classroom — possess adequate competence to adhere to the intervention protocols (Hildebrand et al., 2012). The second element is treatment differentiation, meaning that the results of the intervention must be distinguishable from those of a control condition (Hildebrand et al., 2012). While no specific control condition is established here, the client's baseline condition serves as the implicit point of comparison.
SSD Approach: AB Design
An AB design is selected as the best fit for this true experiment. The rationale for treating it as a true experiment is to determine whether the psychoeducational intervention and social skills training have successfully produced any change in the boy's behavior. A baseline must be established for the intervention (point A), and the change observed after the application of the intervention is recorded (point B) (Byiers et al., 2012). There is no control condition. This approach aligns with established single-subject experimental design methodology used in evidence-based practice research.
References
Byiers, B. J., Reichle, J., & Symons, F. J. (2012). Single-subject experimental design for evidence-based practice. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21(4), 397–414. )
Hildebrand, M. W., Host, H. H., Binder, E. F., Carpenter, B., Freedland, K. E., Morrow-Howell, N., Baum, C. M., Doré, P., & Lenze, E. J. (2012). Measuring treatment fidelity in a rehabilitation intervention study. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 91(8), 715–724.
Powell, L. A., Parker, J., Weighall, A., & Harpin, V. (2022). Psychoeducation intervention effectiveness to improve social skills in young people with ADHD: A meta-analysis. Journal of Attention Disorders, 26(3), 340–357.
WWC Intervention Report. (2013, February). Social skills training. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/wwc_socialskills_020513.pdf
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