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Classroom Inclusion Helps Children with Disabilities Thrive
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Jul 28, 2014 11:00 AM EDT
Children with disabilities can greatly enhance their language skills by attending classes with typically developing peers.
Researchers at Ohio State University found that the language skills of other classmates helped to determine other children's improvements for the future. Furthermore, the findings promote the need for school inclusion policies that aim to help students with disabilities learn alongside those without developmental issues.
"Students with disabilities are the ones who are affected most by the language skills of the other children in their class," said co-study author Laura Justice of the university, in a news release. "We found that children with disabilities get a big boost in their language scores over the course of a year when they can interact with other children who have good language skills."
Researchers found that after one year of preschool, children with disabilities had language skills comparable to children without disabilities when surrounded by other peers.
For the study, researchers examined 670 preschool-aged children who enrolled in 83 early childhood special education classrooms in Ohio. About half of the children had an Individualized Education Plan, which showed signs of any disability issues experienced by the children; between 25 and 100 percent of children in each of the classrooms had a disability.
All of the children's language skills were measured in the fall and spring of the academic year with a commonly used test called the Descriptive Pragmatics Profile. Researchers used the children's score averages to determine relative status in terms of language development when compared with other more highly-skilled peers.
Though all children were somewhat affected by the language abilities of their peers, findings revealed that children with disabilities showed the strongest signs of improvement. Study results showed that language scores of children with disabilities who were in classrooms with highly skilled peers were about 40 percent better than those of children with disabilities who were placed with peers who had other disabilities.
Students with no disabilities showed a 27 percent difference in scores between those with the highest-ranked peers and lowest-ranked ones. Furthermore, findings revealed that the most highly skilled students were those whose language improvement was least affected by the skill of their classmates, according to researchers.
"The highly skilled children aren't hurt by being in classrooms with children who have disabilities," Justice concluded. "But children with disabilities are vulnerable if they aren't placed with more highly skilled peers."
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Psychological Science.
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First Posted: Jul 28, 2014 11:00 AM EDT
Children with disabilities can greatly enhance their language skills by attending classes with typically developing peers.
Researchers at Ohio State University found that the language skills of other classmates helped to determine other children's improvements for the future. Furthermore, the findings promote the need for school inclusion policies that aim to help students with disabilities learn alongside those without developmental issues.
"Students with disabilities are the ones who are affected most by the language skills of the other children in their class," said co-study author Laura Justice of the university, in a news release. "We found that children with disabilities get a big boost in their language scores over the course of a year when they can interact with other children who have good language skills."
Researchers found that after one year of preschool, children with disabilities had language skills comparable to children without disabilities when surrounded by other peers.
For the study, researchers examined 670 preschool-aged children who enrolled in 83 early childhood special education classrooms in Ohio. About half of the children had an Individualized Education Plan, which showed signs of any disability issues experienced by the children; between 25 and 100 percent of children in each of the classrooms had a disability.
All of the children's language skills were measured in the fall and spring of the academic year with a commonly used test called the Descriptive Pragmatics Profile. Researchers used the children's score averages to determine relative status in terms of language development when compared with other more highly-skilled peers.
Though all children were somewhat affected by the language abilities of their peers, findings revealed that children with disabilities showed the strongest signs of improvement. Study results showed that language scores of children with disabilities who were in classrooms with highly skilled peers were about 40 percent better than those of children with disabilities who were placed with peers who had other disabilities.
Students with no disabilities showed a 27 percent difference in scores between those with the highest-ranked peers and lowest-ranked ones. Furthermore, findings revealed that the most highly skilled students were those whose language improvement was least affected by the skill of their classmates, according to researchers.
"The highly skilled children aren't hurt by being in classrooms with children who have disabilities," Justice concluded. "But children with disabilities are vulnerable if they aren't placed with more highly skilled peers."
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Psychological Science.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone