Using a Modified Tootling Intervention to Increase Preschool Students’ Sharing

Sharing can be challenging for preschool students. A multiple baseline design across four groups of preschool students was used to evaluate the effects of a modified Tootling intervention on sharing and asking-to-share behaviors. Students worked independently in groups of three to five to complete color-by-number worksheets, each receiving only half the colors needed. The others in the group had the remaining colors. During this activity, following a social skills training session, a Tootling intervention was applied with interdependent group rewards delivered contingent on the number of peer reports of students’ sharing and asking-to-share behaviors meeting an unknown, randomly selected criterion. Students reported when someone in their group shared or asked to share by pressing an electronic applause button. Visual and statistical analyses provided three demonstrations of a treatment effect on sharing behaviors and increased baseline trends in the fourth group. The data for asking-to-share behaviors was less clear. The discussion focuses on the limitations of the current study and on future research designed to increase prosocial behavior performance and enhance social skills development in preschool children.Impact StatementSharing can be challenging for preschool students. This study provides evidence that a Tootling intervention, in which preschool students pressed an applause button when they observed a classmate share, increased sharing during a small-group coloring activity. This study suggests that this modified procedure for reporting peer prosocial behavior can be a practical, acceptable, and effective strategy for enhancing preschool students’ performance of recently trained prosocial behaviors.