The nature and quality of preadolescent friendships between children with and without learning problems due to mental retardation or mild cognitive difficulties were investigated. Based on an assessment of the reciprocal relationship status of 373 children, including 54 with learning problems, 33 friend and 32 acquaintance dyads were identified. Of these dyads, half included a child with learning problems and half consisted of 2 children without learning problems. The dyads were observed performing a play task. Unlike friendships between children without disabilities, friendships between children with and without learning problems were marked by limited collaboration and shared decision-making, a low level of cooperative play and shared laughter, and an asymmetrical, hierarchical division of roles. The importance of advancing beyond the study of the social acceptance of children with learning problems to study the qualitative aspects of their friendships was discussed.

A key aspect of social perception is the interpretation of others' intentions. Children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have difficulty interpreting benign intentions when a negative event occurs. From a cognitive processing perspective, interpreting benign intentions can be challenging because it requires integration of conflicting information, as the social cues accompanying the negative event convey non-hostile intentions. The present study examined how children with ID process conflicting social information in a more diverse set of situational circumstances than was investigated previously, including situations involving hostile intentions. We hypothesised that when conflicting information in a social situation consists of mixed social cues that convey insincere benign intentions (a type of hostile intentions), children with ID would have difficulty arriving at an accurate interpretation, just as they do when a negative event is accompanied by cues that convey benign intentions. We also hypothesised that when a negative event is accompanied by cues that convey benign intentions, the presence of a highly salient negative event would pose added interpretation difficulty for these children. Methods Participants (58 children with ID and 189 children without ID in grades 2-6) viewed 13 videotaped vignettes. In each vignette, social cues that accompanied a negative event provided information about the intentions of the character that caused the event. After presenting each vignette, we asked the child questions designed to assess aspects of social perception, including his/her interpretation of intentions. Vignettes represented three types of situations that pose conflicting information: (1) a conflict between a negative event and social cues, which conveyed benign intentions (five items); (2) the presence of conflicting social cues that conveyed insincere benign intentions (four items); and (3) additional items designed to examine the effect of the salience of negative event and cues on accurate interpretation of benign intentions (four items). Teachers completed rating scales of social behaviour, enabling us to examine whether the ability to interpret intentions when conflicting information is present is related to children's social behaviour. Results Children with ID had lower interpretation accuracy than children without ID for all three social situations that presented conflicting information. Children with ID appeared to have particular difficulty interpreting benign intentions when a negative event (but not the social cue) was made salient. For children with ID, interpretation accuracy and teacher-rated social behaviour were related. Conclusions Results demonstrated that the presence of conflicting information poses cognitive processing challenges in a variety of social situations, making it difficult for children with ID to arrive at accurate interpretations. Children with ID were less likely than children without ID to interpret intentions accurately, not just when the social cues conveyed benign inte...

We examined two social-cognitive processes, social perception (the encoding and interpretation of social cues) and the generation of social strategies, in 117 children with and without mental retardation (MR) in Grades 1 through 5. Children responded to videotaped vignettes of social conflicts. Children with MR had difficulty recognizing benign intention social cues that accompanied a negative event. When benign intention social cues were present in social conflicts involving peer entry, children with MR resembled younger children without MR in misinterpreting the other child's intentions as “being mean.” Children with MR had difficulty varying their social strategies to fit the social conflict and often suggested the strategy of using an appeal to authority. Results suggest that children with MR have difficulty focusing simultaneously on multiple social cues which are incongruent and in selecting appropriate social strategies. Recommendations focus on instructional strategies for improving social perception and strategy generation skills in children with MR.

No abstract

The present study examined the ability of 56 children with learning problems (resulting from mental retardation or mild cognitive delay) and 56 children without learning problems to resolve the social problem of whether to share limited resources with a peer. Children with and without learning problems offered similar strategies for resolving hypothetical limited resources problems, but responded differently to an actual limited resources problem. Only 15% of the dyads of children with learning problems shared the limited resource as opposed to the 58% of children without learning problems. Non-sharers from the two groups differed in their explanations for their behavior. Results suggest the need for intervention efforts to address factors such as goal orientation and emotional arousal that influence whether children with learning problems choose to share in actual limited resources situations.