This study examined the effect of visual status (visually impaired or sighted) and setting (indoor or outdoor) on the social behaviors of preschool-age children in an inclusive setting. It found that regardless of their visual status, the children spent significantly more time near sighted children than near visually impaired children.

Current changes in legislation in the United States support the rights of individuals with an intellectual impairment to marry and have children. Current societal views, however, are heavily in uenced by our history of viewing these individuals as inadequate parents. This historical view is based upon the assumption that those with intellectual impairments are genetically inferior. Changing views of development, however, suggest that the issue of how individuals with intellectual impairments develop is somewhat more complex. The epigenetic model is one that proposes that development is the result of the complex transaction between the individual and the environment. This paper applies this model to persons with an intellectual impairment to better understand the parenting skills they display. It is argued that by intervening and changing developmental pathways, the development of parenting skills of those with intellectual impairments can be facilitated.

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