Peer Acceptance of Learning Disabled Children in the Regular Classroom

Abstract

Mainstreamed handicapped children often experience social rejection by their nonhandicapped peers. To evaluate possible approaches leading to a resolution of peer rejection, 86 low socially accepted learning disabled children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were paired for 8 weeks with 86 high socially accepted, same-sexed, nonhandicapped classmates, in four groups: mutual interest group, cooperative academic task group, Hawthorne Effect/Control group, and classroom control group. Social acceptance ratings of students with learning disabilities by their nonhandicapped peers, paired in the mutual interest group, increased significantly as a function of the intervention. Those in the academic activities group and in the Hawthorne control group did not change. However, ratings of the classroom control group showed a lowered acceptance level over time.