The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of manipulating toy sets on the social verbal interaction that occurs between preschool-age children with disabilities and their typically developing peers. A single-subject alternating-treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of manipulating social toy sets and isolate toy sets on…

Comparison of instructional versus non-instructional roles on the interactions of general education high school students and their peers with disabilities found that during the non-instructional role condition, students engaged in more social-related than activity-related interactions, discussed a greater variety of conversational topics, and…

The behavior patterns of 6 handicapped children and 14 nonhandicapped children were recorded during participation in a model developmental-interactive based curriculum for preschool children. Interactions were recorded using the Coping Analysis Schedule for Educational Settings. Among findings were the following: the consistently high occurrence…

An intensive, naturalistic, observational study was conducted of a preschool class which integrated eight handicapped and five nonhandicapped children. An attempt was made to identify social and physical settings which maximized interaction among members of the two groups. Observations (N=2,306) of the social and play behaviors were recorded over…

In a microanalysis of the behaviors of examiners and handicapped children during videotaped testing sessions, handicapped students performed better with familiar examiners than with unfamiliar examiners. The children spoke significantly more often and longer when tested by familiar examiners who exercised more frequent and longer intervals of…

To address the need for objective evaluation of parent-child interactions, the investigators created a taxonomy of interactional behaviors used by parents and preverbal/early verbal children. Based on statistical analysis, the taxonomy was shortened to include only those objective behaviors that were highly correlated with the overall subjective…

An instrument, "The Teacher Student Interaction Analysis," was developed to supply direct observation data on the number and kinds of teacher/student interactions and display data visually. The paper describes the instrument, summarizes field testing procedures and outcomes, and illustrates analysis outcomes. (Author/DB)

This study first classified empirical measures that have been used to assess the social integration of employees with disabilities. It then aggregated findings describing social interaction patterns in employment. Ten categories of measures of social interaction were identified and occurrence of social interaction was found to vary by…

The handicapped and nonhandicapped children changed differentially over time in their solitary activities and dominant interactions and in their interaction with handicapped and nonhandicapped peers, but these changes all moved in the direction of making the two groups less distinguishable. (Author/SBH)

This article describes the Language Interaction Intervention Program (LIIP) used in preschool classes for handicapped children in central New Jersey. Covered are the LIIP curriculum rationale, the LIIP model, the original evaluation study, and a replication study showing the program was effectively replicated with mothers appropriately changing…

This study examined a system for fading teacher prompts to children who served as peers in peer-initiation interventions for young children with disabilities (n=6). Results indicated that social interaction continued at the levels found during intervention and was maintained during a short maintenance period. (Author/DB)

The study compared four methods of increasing quantity and quality of play interactions between nonhandicapped and 11 moderately/severely handicapped children in an integrated preschool. Results of contingent reinforcement, reinforcement plus modeling, reinforcement plus behavior management, and reinforcement plus modeling plus behavior management…

To obtain information on the potential benefits of integration, the study investigated the nature and extent of social interactions among 37 mildly, moderately, severely, and nonhandicapped preschool children at different developmental levels. (Author)

This study, involving 40 young siblings of either handicapped or nonhandicapped children, found that siblings of handicapped children engaged in more parallel and social play and were more nurturing with their siblings than were control children. Mothers were more likely to deliver commands, directives, and reprimands to siblings of handicapped…

Tools for assessing the quality of parent-child interactions in programs for handicapped infants and toddlers include: (1) behavioral observation systems (molar rating, molecular coding); (2) interaction assessment systems (molar rating scales, molecular coding systems, checklists). Considerations in selection should include content validity,…