Students with autism spectrum disorder often require social supports to function well in a mainstream class setting. Researchers have demonstrated the effects of social skills training for students with autism, but their work has focused primarily on topographically defined outcomes, such as increasing the frequency of social behaviours. More…

Len Barton has pioneered the sociological study of education in the areas of disability studies and inclusive education. This paper addresses an argument developed by Len Barton that social exclusion, of which disablism is one element, (1) has many compounding forms of differing exclusions, (2) is not a natural but a socially constructed process,…

Evaluation of a peer-mediated intervention which promoted communicative interaction by handicapped preschoolers through the teaching of facilitative strategies to three handicapped and three nonhandicapped students revealed increases in response rates of handicapped subjects during free play and maintenance (without initial prompting) of peer…

Low socially accepted learning-disabled intermediate-grade students (N=86) were paired with 86 high socially accepted, nonhandicapped classmates for 8 weeks in 4 groups: mutual interest group, cooperative academic task group, Hawthorne effect/control group, and classroom control group. Evaluated were changes in classmates' ratings of…

This study applied computer-assisted instruction (CAI) techniques to improve peer acceptance among 92 mainstreamed students with mild disabilities from 10 to 13 years of age. Participants in the treatment group received their generalized curriculum program (including mathematics, language arts, reading, health, social studies, and science)…

The impact of teachers' interventions upon social interactions between 40 severely retarded elementary school students and their nonhandicapped peers was studied. Intervention initially positively affected social play behavior, but these effects diminished or reversed as intervention continued, suggesting that intervention should be slowly…

This article analyzes research on children's perceptions of emotional and behavioral difficulties. Virtually all studies concur that peers hold negative views of externalizing behavior problems. Findings suggest that professionals need to target peer-identified behavioral and social skill goals and develop programming aimed at normalization to…

Educable mentally retarded children were mainstreamed into regular elementary school classes. Experimental subjects worked on a multimedia project with four to six nonretarded classmates. After eight weeks of treatment, the nonretarded children's acceptance of their experimental peers improved significantly more than that of the control children.…

A review of current theory and practice regarding social skills training for children with behavior problems precedes the proposal of a different approach to social skills training, which takes into account the effects of social perception biases of peers which may hinder mainstreaming attempts. (Author/CB)

This study evaluated two social skills interventions designed to increase the peer acceptance of six students (ages 10-12) with learning disabilities in regular classrooms. The students were instructed in two social skills strategies as well as in skills for working in small groups and leading group activities. Two mnemonic devices were used to…

Describes a program planned and implemented by community volunteers to facilitate the development of positive attitudes toward the disabled. The program was implemented over one semester in five public schools. The article discusses variables that contributed to the success of the program as well as some of the limitations of attitude change…

Peer support interventions are emerging as an effective alternative to traditional paraprofessional models for assisting students with moderate to severe disabilities to access the general curriculum. To contribute to the refinement of peer support interventions, we evaluated the impact of altering the number of participating peers on the social…