A multiple-baseline analysis of social-skills training in chronic schizophrenics.

Two adults with long-term schizophrenia got social-skills training. The team taught three skills: start a chat, ask for help, and say no to unfair requests.

Training used BST: short teaching, live model, practice, and praise plus correction. Each skill was trained one after another so the second skill started only after the first looked good.

Both people learned each skill right after it was trained. They kept the gains 2–8 weeks later with no extra sessions.

The order mattered. Skill one stayed strong while skills two and three were added, showing real learning, not just general chatter.

Kleinert et al. (2007) ran the same BST recipe but with parents of kids with autism. Parents mastered DTT steps and used them on new tasks without more training. The pattern matches: teach, model, practice, feedback works across ages and goals.

Fanning Tacoaman et al. (2024) added short video clips to teach pairing to RBTs. Again, skills stuck for a month. The 1976 study shows you don’t need video; live modeling is enough when feedback is immediate.

Raslear (1975) looked at problem kids and found behaviors cluster together. Renne et al. (1976) breaks that idea by teaching single social skills one at a time and seeing clean, separate gains. The designs differ—reversal vs. multiple baseline—but together they tell us when to target clusters versus when to split skills.

If you run social-skills groups for adults with mental-health diagnoses, copy the 1976 order: teach one skill, see mastery, then add the next. Use brief instructions, show the move, let the client try, and give instant feedback. No extra tech is required and the gains can last two months without booster sessions.