THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

The present study was primarily concerned with the communication skill development of physically handicapped children. Since these children often are denied contact with peers because of their disabilities, it was suggested that they may be unable to develop the perspective-taking ability necessary for adapting communication to a specific listener. It was also suggested that the increased contact provided by moving the handicapped into regular public school classrooms may help alleviate this problem. First-, third-, and sixth-grade children, handicapped and nonhandicapped, with and without the others in their classes, were tested on their listener-adaptation abilities in general and their adaptation to handicapped children, using pictures as stimuli for messages. The results support the hypothesis that handicapped children are deficient in listener adaptation. Classroom association with “normals” seems to improve this, but does not raise them to the level of their nonhandicapped peers. Nonhandicapped children are unable to adapt to handicapped children, and contact with the handicapped does not seem to improve this situation. Being in an integrated class seems to have some positive effects on handicapped children and few effects on the nonhandicapped.     

Social interactions among teachers, handicapped children, and nonhandicapped children in a mainstreamed preschool

The emotional tone and social integration of two mainstreamed preschool classes were studied to determine whether or not the findings of an earlier study would be repeated. Although most variables showed no differences between handicapped and nonhandicapped children's peer-directed and teacher-directed behaviors, result did suggest that, particularly in one class, nonhandicapped children tended to selectively interact with other nonhandicapped (as opposed to handicapped) children when engaging in more complex (associative) social play. Handicapped children did not show the same tendency to interact more within their own group. At the same time, handicapped children received more help and affection from peers, and were more effectionate towards peers, than nonhandicapped children. Teachers refused handicapped children's requests and corrected their behavior more often; however they also gave them more help and more affection than nonhandicapped children. The results were generally congruent with those of an earlier study but did show more segregation on the part of nonhandicapped children.     

Unprogrammed effects of training high-status peers to interact with severely handicapped children.

We examined the effects of a peer initiation intervention with high- and low-status nonhandicapped students on the behavior of untrained peers toward handicapped students. In the context of a counterbalanced withdrawal design, high- and low-status nonhandicapped students were taught to direct social initiations to eight severely handicapped students during recess activities. The interactions of the high-status students resulted in higher levels of initiations by untrained peers toward the handicapped students than did the interactions of the low-status students. Social response levels were also differentially affected by the status of the peer initiator.     

Play behaviors of handicapped preschool children in the presence and absence of nonhandicapped peers

Sixteen minimally handicapped children and 18 nonhandicapped children were observed playing as separate classes and as a combined group on their preschool playground. Play behaviors directed toward self, toys, teachers, and peers were recorded using a time sampling procedure. Repeated measures analyses revealed that: (1) handicapped children engaged in less peer-directed and more teacher-directed behaviors than the similar chronological age but developmentally more advanced normal children; (2) a comparison between a subsample of normal and handicapped children who were approximately equivalent on developmental age suggested that the normal children only vocalized more often; (3) when integrated with the normal children, handicapped children engaged in more peer-directed and less teacher-directed behaviors than when playing in the non-integrated situation; (4) during the combined group play situation, normal children directed more behaviors to their own classmates while handicapped children directed approximately equal amounts of behavior to their own classmates and to their normal peers. These results suggest that the normal children were not negatively affected and the handicapped children were positively affected by the integrated play situation.     

Preliminary report on construction and validation of a pediatric sleep disturbance questionnaire

A scale to assess sleep disturbance of children with developmental disabilities is reported. The scale has been used with a small sample of 14 children diagnosed as having Tourette Disorder, 36 physically handicapped children (cerebral palsy). Also, a group of 115 nonhandicapped Native American children were surveyed to assess whether the items might be appropriate for use with such children. The scale has 6 distinct factors and appears to have adequate reliability and validity.     

Impression management in behavior toward handicapped patients]

A previous study (Tr?ster, 1989) showed that nonhandicapped persons preferred a physically handicapped interaction partner to a nonhandicapped partner in an attributionally unambiguous situation. In order to test whether this "sympathy effect of physical handicap" is based on tendencies of impression management, 48 female subjects had to choose to sit next to either a physically handicapped or nonhandicapped female interaction partner in order to view a film together. Attributional ambiguity was varied by either confounding the choice of an interaction partner with a second, socially acceptable alternative (attributionally ambiguous situation: a choice between two films) or not confounding it (attributionally unambiguous situation: no choice between films). Public responsibility was manipulated by informing the subjects about their freedom to choose where they wished to sit either in public (public responsibility) or in private (no public responsibility). The results supported the impression management hypothesis: The handicapped interaction partner (in a wheelchair) was only preferred when the subjects had to anticipate that observers would deduce a preference of the chosen partner from the subjects' choices because of the attributionally unambiguous situation and the public announcement of their freedom of choice. Results suggest that the nonhandicapped strive to exhibit positive and nondiscriminative behavior toward the handicapped in order to avoid creating a disadvantageous impression in an observer.     

Social reciprocity in handicapped and nonhandicapped children in a dyadic play situation

Social reciprocity behavior was compared for handicapped and nonhandicapped preschool children when they were in play situations with both handicapped and nonhandicapped partners. In a counterbalanced design, handicapped and nonhandicapped children were paired with both handicapped and nonhandicapped play partners, and the social initiation and response sequences of the dyads were observed. Types of initiation observed were friendly statements, friendly questions, mildly negative advances, and demanding statements. Friendly, ignoring, and negative responses were observed to these initiations. Handicapped and nonhandicapped children did not differ on overall number of initiations. However, they did differ on the types of initiation they made. Handicapped children asked fewer friendly questions and engaged in more demanding initiations than expected. Both groups made more initiations when paired with handicapped partners than when paired with nonhandicapped partners, but the groups did not differ on the types of initiation made to handicapped and nonhandicapped partners. The handicapped children made more ignoring and negative responses to friendly initiations than the nonhandicapped children. Behaving similarly, both groups tended to respond negatively to negative and demanding initiations.     

Do adolescents help and share?

Although developmental and social psychologists have studied prosocial behavior for the past twenty years, its occurrence in adolescents has received little attention. In the present paper, observational and self-report data were collected on 37 nonhandicapped and handicapped (behaviorally disordered) adolescents in public school settings. Helping, sharing, cooperating, comforting, defending, donating, and rescuing were the prosocial behaviors investigated. The adolescents with handicaps displayed significantly more prosocial behavior than did the nonhandicapped adolescents. However, the nonhandicapped adolescents perceived themselves as engaging more frequently in prosocial behavior than did their handicapped peers. The teachers of the handicapped adolescents used a prosocial teaching style more frequently than did the teachers of the nonhandicapped adolescents. Implications for future research and training are discussed.     

Mothers' attitudes toward fat, weight, and dieting in themselves and their children

We examined how a mother's view of her body, and fatness in general, affects her attitude toward her child's weight and eating. Mothers (N = 118) of 3–5-year-old children filled out a questionnaire designed to assess weight satisfaction, anti-fat attitudes, and how concerned and restrictive they are with regards to their child's weight and eating. We found mothers who were more fearful of being or becoming overweight themselves worried more for their children, although fearful attitudes did not predict restricting a child's eating. These results suggest that maternal attitudes toward their own weight affect their beliefs about their children's weight.     

Group aggression among school children in three schools

"Mobbing", i.e. school children repeatedly ganging up on the same victims, was studied among 434 12–16 years old children in three schools in Finland. A group of bullies and a group of victims were selected on basis of peer ratings. 13.7% of the boys and 5.4% of the girls were involved in mobbing behaviour. The children's personality variables were studied with questionnaires. The victims had low self-esteem, were subjectively maladjusted, and experienced their peer relations negatively. The victims were physically weaker than well-adjusted children, and obesity and handicaps were more common among them. The bullies were physically strong, and handicaps were also among them more frequent than among well-adjusted children. The bullies held positive attitudes towards aggression, experienced their peer relations negatively, and held negative attitudes towards teachers and peers. They were unpopular among their peers, though not so unpopular as the victims.     

An examination of project aware: The effects on children's attitudes toward themselves,others, and school

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Project AWARE on children's attitudes about themselves, peers, teachers, principals, and school. Data were collected on children's sex, race, stanine score on achievement tests, and pretest performance in order to determine the differential effects of the treatment. Eighty students were included in the study, 40 in the experimental group and 40 in the control group. All were from fourth and fifth grade classrooms. The major findings were that children involved in the program achieved greater personal adjustment and accepted responsibility for negative outcomes in social situations (internal control). White children scored higher in personal and social adjustment. Black children evidenced more positive attitudes toward school. Girls scored significantly higher than boys on the social adjustment subtests and attitudes toward peers. Black children in the control group had less positive attitudes toward teachers than white children in the experimental group     

A DIRECT PROMPTING STRATEGY FOR INCREASING RECIPROCAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HANDICAPPED AND NONHANDICAPPED SIBLINGS

We investigated the effects of a sibling training procedure, consisting of direct prompting and modeling, on the occurrence of reciprocal interactions between nonhandicapped and handicapped siblings. Data were obtained for training, generalization, and follow-up. Results of a multiple-baseline design across three pairs of siblings showed that: (a) direct prompting of interactions was an effective strategy for increasing reciprocal interactions between handicapped and nonhandicapped siblings; (b) the training procedure resulted in increased levels of initiations and responsiveness to initiations; (c) reciprocal interactions between siblings generalized to larger play groups or across settings; (d) reciprocal interactions between handicapped subjects and untrained, nonhandicapped peers increased without direct training; (e) the siblings' levels of interactions were maintained at 6 mo follow-up; and (f) these findings were judged socially valid by the siblings' parents.     

ATTITUDES INFLUENCING EMPLOYMENT OF THE HANDICAPPED

This study investigates the effect of existing attitudes on employment practices of two groups of Texas employers, the first employing visually handicapped persons, and the second employing physically handicapped persons. After personal interviews, all 24 participants were administered the Survey of Interpersonal Values (SIV) and the Action, Cognition, and Emotion Test (ACET). Among conclusions drawn from the findings were that employers of the visually handicapped indicate their willingness to hire persons with physical disabilities, that employers who show willingness to employ handicapped personnel at the professional level tend to value leadership traits in employees, that employers may not carry through with actual employment of the handicapped even though they communicate interest in and tolerance for these individuals, that employers' positive attitudes appear to relate significantly to positive experiences with handicapped workers, and that the larger the population center the more receptive the attitudes of employers toward the handicapped.     

Individual differences in the anti-fat attitudes of preschool-children: the importance of perceived body size

Preschool-age children hold negative attitudes toward overweight peers (i.e., anti-fat attitudes), but little is known about individual differences in these attitudes. The current study investigated actual weight status and perceived body size in relation to preschool-age children's anti-fat attitudes. Sixty-nine 4–6 year-olds (61% girls) were individually interviewed about their body size perceptions using a figure rating scale and anti-fat attitudes using multiple methods (including an adjective rating scale and ratings of acceptability for different body shapes). Results suggested that children's perceived body size, not actual body size, was related to their attitudes about an overweight figure and the number of figures rated as acceptable. Children who perceived themselves as heavier held fewer anti-fat attitudes. Perceived and actual body size ratings were not related to ratings of a thin figure. This study suggests the importance of examining children's body image, particularly their perceived body size, in understanding their anti-fat attitudes.     

Messages about the uniqueness and similarities of people: Impact on U.S. Black and Latino youth

This experiment examined the impact of messages about uniqueness and similarity between groups of people on Black and Latino children's social attitudes. Children (ages 11–14) read two brief science books embedded with a similarities message (“all people are basically the same”), unique message (“each person is unique”), combined similar-unique message (“all people are the same in a way, but each person is also unique”), or no additional message (control). Relative to the other conditions, the combined condition increased general social tolerance and decreased desired social distance from White children. No message appeared to negatively impact participants' attitudes toward their own group. Implications of these results for basic and applied anti-bias work on promoting similarities, differences, or both are discussed.     

Developmental Changes in Response to Frustration among Physically Handicapped Children

Methods of coping with frustration were examined in handicapped and nonhandicapped children at three different age levels, by means of the Rosenzweig P-F Study. While an extrapunitive approach was predominant in both groups and did not differ between the groups, significant differences were found in the use of secondary coping strategies. When compared with nonhandicapped counterparts, handicapped six year olds were more likely to minimize or deny frustration. At 10 years, handicapped Ss were more likely than nonhandicapped Ss to be intropunitive or self-blaming. There was a developmental tendency for handicapped Ss to make greater use of intropunitive responses with increasing age.     

Psychosocial characteristics of preschool siblings of handicapped and nonhandicapped children

This project examined psychosocial characteristics of 24 preschool-aged siblings of handicapped children in relation to a control group of 22 siblings of nonhandicapped children. Subjects were matched on family size and income, sibling age, birth order, sex, age spacing, and marital status of their parents. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between groups of children on measures of perceived self-competence and acceptance, understanding of developmental disabilities, empathy, and child care responsibility. Significant group differences were found where brothers of handicapped children were rated by their mothers as being more depressed and aggressive than brothers of nonhandicapped control children. Sisters of handicapped children were rated by mothers as being more aggressive than sisters of nonhandicapped children. Sisters of handicapped children and brothers of nonhandicapped children had significantly fewer privileges and more restrictions on their home activities than other groups. Results are discussed in relation to previous research on older silbings of handicapped children and the general literature on family stress and childhood disability and disease. The importance of examining sibling functioning via multiple measures of child behavior is stressed.The authors are grateful to the children and families who participated in the project. The assistance of Dr. Ricardo Barrera, Christine DiBlasio, Lisa Kaye, Paola Bellabarba, Jeanne Logozzo, Donna Motley, Jennifer Harter, and Tina Meisell is also gratefully acknowleged. This project was funded by Grant Number G008300345 from the U.S. Department of Education.     

Factors associated with mothers' obesity stigma and young children's weight stereotypes

Parents and children hold negative attitudes about obesity, but little is known about individual differences in obesity stigma. The current study examined authoritarian parenting style, beliefs about the controllability of weight and fear of fat in relation to mothers' dislike of overweight individuals. Factors related to children's weight stereotypes were also investigated. Forty-nine mothers and children (43% girls) participated. Mothers showed more dislike and blame toward adults who are overweight than children who are overweight; parents were most often blamed for children's weight status. Authoritarian parenting and beliefs about controllability were related to mothers' anti-fat attitudes, but fear of fat was not. However, mothers' fear of fat was the best predictor of children's negative stereotypes toward overweight peers. The current study provides some preliminary insight into the role of mothers in children's attitudes about weight. Examining individual difference factors is also useful in planning targeted interventions to lessen obesity stigma.     

Social support and adjustment in chronically ill and handicapped children

The relationship between social support and adjustment was investigated in children with a chronic physical illness or handicap. Mothers of 153 children with juvenile diabetes, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obesity, spina bifida, or cerebral palsy reported on these children's family support, peer support, externalizing behavior problems, and internalizing behavior problems. Children reported as having high social support from both family and peers showed a significantly better adjustment than those with high social support from only one of these sources. Chronically ill or physically handicapped children without high support from both family and peers were reported to have significantly more behavior problems than children in general. Both family and peer support contributed negatively and independently to the variance in externalizing behavior problems, whereas only peer support did so for internalizing behavior problems. There were no interactions between type of support and either sex or age in predicting adjustment.