ABSTRACT
A most important innovation of the present companion program was the introduction of an objective behavioral assessment of program outcome. As the intervention progressed, the companions stressed more intensive but less formal activities where the child could build relationships with peers, resulting in more time spent with other children. Personality can change due to the influence of external social or behavioral forces acting on a person. The most important outcome criterion was the total rate of social interactions with peers. Support for the effectiveness of the intervention was obtained from the main behavioral criterion, the rate of social interactions during free play. Perhaps a better measure might have involved some behavioral statements such as "gets along with others"; the children could then have named the students to whom each statement applied. The effective application of behaviorally oriented strategies may indicate that it is not necessary to depend solely on the benefits of a "relationship" as a change mechanism.
