This study examined 60 general education teachers' classrooms, K-12, that included students with learning disabilities. The study examined how general education teachers' behaviors toward mainstreamed students with learning disabilities compared with their behavior toward students without disabilities, and the interactions between students, and between students and teacher. Observations using the Classroom Climate Scale indicated that few teacher behaviors and classroom practices were different for the two groups of students. However, differences were found in student behaviors. Overall, students with learning disabilities interacted with the teacher, other students, and classroom activities at much lower rates than did other students.

Twenty-two studies are reviewed that report the effects of social skills training and intervention with 572 children identified as learning disabled between 5 and 19 years of age. These studies are reviewed to examine characteristics and components of intervention effectiveness. Age and sex of subjects, grade grouping, group size, intervention duration, intervention procedures, subject selection, and type of interventional model are examined to find patterns that reflect intervention success. Several intervention characteristics and components are associated with social intervention effectiveness: selecting subjects who had social skills difficulties or low peer acceptance, using cognitive-behavioral intervention procedures, providing individual or small group instruction, and applying long-term intervention and training. Discussion focuses on difficulties in comparing studies to determine intervention effectiveness through the examination of outcome measures, a call for revisions in future reporting of social interventions in the literature, and those intervention factors that relate to increases in peer acceptance.

This article reviews 27 studies that examine social skills interventions and their effects on students with behavior problems. Results of these studies indicate that a number of social skills interventions have been successful with children with behavior problems. The social skills interventions yielded changes in self, teacher, and parent perceptions. Peer perceptions seem to be more resistant to change, though, and should be more closely addressed in future research.

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