Developmental differences in reactions to children labeled mentally retarded

Conversational competence and peer response to mildly retarded children.

“…The finding that girls are harsher in their responses when the child being evaluated is both incompetent and labeled is consistent with earlier research (e.g. Elam & Sigelman, 1983).…”

“…Four instruments were used to assess perceptions of the target child’s traits, the students’ behavioral intentions toward the target child, and projected peer acceptance of the target child. The first instrument in the questionnaire was the Adjective Checklist (ACL), a 34-item checklist developed by Siperstein and his colleagues (Siperstein, 1980) that has been used in assessing children’s responses to mentally retarded peers (Elam & Sigelman, 1983; Sigelman & McGrail, 1985; Wisely & Morgan, 1981). The ACL uses adjectives derived from large-scale, open-ended interviews with school-age children about words they use to describe classmates who they like or dislike.…”

“…Experimental and classroom studies have sought to identify characteristics of mildly retarded children that may negatively affect their acceptance by nonretarded peers. Among the areas investigated, mentally retarded children’s physical appearance (Siperstein & Gottlieb, 1977), academic incompetence (Elam & Sigelman, 1983; Gottlieb, Semmel, & Veldman, 1978; Siperstein & Gottlieb, 1977), and inappropriate social behavior (Gottlieb et al, 1978; Siperstein & Bak, 1985b) have been linked to rejection by classmates. Research has recently focused on this last factor, in part because social behavior is an area where classroom intervention approaches are most likely to be successful.…”

Handbook of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

“…For example, children have been found to express neutral to positive attitudes toward a target child who exhibits poor academic or social behavior and is labeled "mentally retarded'' (Bak & Siperstein, 1986;Budoff & Siperstein, 1978;Elam & Sigelman, 1983;Hemphill & Siperstein, 1990). The authors speculate that the presence of a label allows students to provide special dispensation to the child with ID.…”

Effects of Special Education Labels on Peers' and Adults' Evaluations of a Handicapped Youth Choir

“…Differences are also evident between age-groups in response to the open-ended questions. The peer's emphasis on musical characteristics of the performances may reflect children's tendencies to evaluate children with handicaps on the basis of their academic competence rather than on the basis of stigmatizing labels (Elam & Sigelman, 1983;Johnson, Sigelman, & Falkenberg, 1986;Siperstein & Bak, 1985).…”