Setting Effects on Friendship Formation among Young Children with and without Disabilities

Abstract

This study examined the effects of social setting on the friendship formation of 333 preschool children (120 children with disabilities and 213 typically developing children) enrolled in inclusive early childhood programs. The study found that typically developing children in specialized classrooms had significantly more friends than did children with disabilities in those same settings. In child care settings, however, the difference between the reported number of friendships for typically developing children and their peers with disabilities did not reach statistical significance. Implications are presented for considering how the social ecology of the early childhood classroom setting may influence social outcomes for young children enrolled in inclusive programs.

The friendships of young children with developmental delays: A longitudinal analysis

“…Based on parent and teacher reports, the existence of friendships and more in-depth social contact with peers is more limited for children with delays than for typically developing children, although the general peer social networks of children with delays exhibit many similarities to those of their non-delayed peers (Buysse, Goldman, & Skinner, 2002;Geisthardt, Brotherson, & Cook, 2002;Guralnick, 1997). In the vast majority of instances, typically developing children are identified as friends of children with delays (e.g., Guralnick, 1997;Freeman & Kasari, 2002).…”

An evaluation of architectural structural diagram of independent kindergartens buildings

“…When we consider inappropriate building, likelihood of children with special needs' attainment gets lower. For this reason necessary adjustment should be implemented for those children since several studies have been suggesting that children with special needs can benefit from inclusive preschool setting as they get chance to observe more complex behavior of their typically developed peers (Buysse, Goldman, & Skinner, 2002).…”

Adaptation of an Interview-Based Protocol to Examine Close Relationships Between Children With Developmental Disabilities and Peers

“…One particular difficulty is that some students with developmental disabilities may have impairments in cognitive or communication skills that seemingly preclude their participation in questionnaire-based research. Some previous researchers have relied on teacher or parent reports to evaluate the friendships of young children with disabilities (Buysse, 1993;Buysse & Bailey, 1993;Buysse et al, 2002;Buysse et al, 1997;Guralnick, 1997;Guralnick, Connor, & Hammond, 1995). This approach may have potential application to a wider range of children with developmental disabilities and may provide a more complete view of the character of close relationships.…”

“…As many of the children were very young, and some target students were nonverbal, interviews conducted with only the children might not have provided information on some relationships. Previous researchers (Buysse et al, 2002;Guralnick et al, 1995;Overton & Rausch, 2002) have sometimes relied solely on the responses of teachers and/or parents to describe friendships of children in preschool or day care settings. Although information from students was extended by asking parents and teachers to provide information, the researchers in this study considered that while not all of the children could complete the full interview form, a sizeable number could provide some information on their perspective of the relationships, and that this information would be too relevant to be dismissed.…”