Seventy-nine primary and secondary school
children were enrolled by their parents in
September 2004 for one-hour group therapy
sessions held once a week after school at the
SuperKids program. A nonprobability convenience
sample was used for this study. All children
were considered eligible for participation
in the study.
Introductory letters were sent to all parents
in October because the Social Skills Rating
System (SSRS) (Gresham & Elliott, 1990) was
created to be used at least two months after a
teacher has begun to observe the student in his
or her classroom. Letters informed the parents
of the proposed grant-based research study,
explained the protocol, requested written permission
to enroll their child in the study, and
requested the name and address of the child's
school teacher or special education teacher who
had the most exposure to the student's behavior
around peers.
Ofthe 79 parents notified, 70 gave permission
for their children to participate. Of these 70, four
withdrew their children from the program some
time during the year for varying reasons, mostly
because of family relocation. Sixty-six children
were eligible to participate in the study. The
children were not aware that the research study
was being carried out; therefore, they were not
asked to complete any surveys for their participation
in the study.