Examining Children's Attitudes Towards Disability After One Year in a Reverse Integrated Setting
Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: While there is research on the topic of children with disabilities and their experiences with inclusion, there is a paucity of research in the area of typically developing children's attitudes and experiences with inclusion.Previous research in the area examined either the attitudes of typically developing children towards children with disabilities, or the friendship status of children with disabilities.Though these two areas, attitude formation and actual behaviour, are likely related, they are infrequently investigated concurrently to see if attitudes towards disability are reflected in their social play with children with disabilities.The following thesis evaluated a unique reverse integration (RI) program, which has been in effect for many years but has yet to be systematically analyzed, where a few pre-selected typically developing children were integrated into a special education classroom, for the benefit of both children with and without disabilities.The goal of the program is for typically developing children to learn acceptance of difference, and form friendships with children who are unlike themselves.This research project explored the developing attitudes of typically developing elementary school children towards children with disabilities throughout one year in the program (N = 8) through in depth interviews, field notes, a focus group, a parental questionnaire, observations and an acceptance towards disability measure.Results showed that typically developing children's attitudes and conceptualizations about
Author: Erin Sulla
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2131620819