Social skills training with relapsing schizophrenics. An experimental analysis.

Rider et al. (1984) worked with three adults who had chronic schizophrenia. The team wanted to see if daily behavioral skills training could teach better conversation and assertiveness. Medication stayed the same so any change came from the teaching, not new drugs.

Staff used role-play, feedback, and praise to practice greeting, refusing unreasonable requests, and making small talk. They tracked each skill every day in short tests.

All three patients learned the targeted social skills. Their new skills showed up in real hospital chats, not just in practice rooms. Gains held while meds stayed constant.

Kohler et al. (1985) ran a near-copy of the design with preschoolers. Both studies used multiple-baseline-across-behaviors and daily BST. Kids learned to invite peers to play; adults learned to greet and refuse. The package works across ages and settings.

Mulvaney et al. (1974) taught parents and teens to negotiate conflict the same way: rehearsal plus praise. Again, skills moved from fake situations to real life. The method is old, but it keeps working.

Todorov et al. (1984) looks like a twin: same year, same design, same positive graph lines. Instead of social talk, they taught manual signs to clients with severe ID. The shared lesson: break the skill into pieces, prompt, fade, and watch the line climb.

You can run this exact script on your ward tomorrow. Pick one social deficit, script three short responses, and rehearse for five minutes a day. Chart each step; the graph will tell you when to add the next skill. No extra meds, no fancy gear—just BST and data.