Friendships and Social Acceptance of Portuguese Children With Disabilities: The Role of Classroom Quality, Individual Skills, and Dosage

Abstract

Positive social experiences with peers are important for children with disabilities attending inclusive early childhood education (ECE). This study investigated the associations between classroom quality, children's verbal, social, and behavioral skills, and the friendships and social acceptance of children with disabilities, while testing the moderating effects of ECE dosage. Eighty-six children with disabilities (63 boys; Mage = 67.53, SD = 10.54), attending 86 inclusive ECE classrooms from the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, Portugal, participated in the study. We found no effects of classroom quality on children's social acceptance and friendships and ECE dosage did not moderate this association. However, ECE dosage moderated the association between children's individual skills and their social acceptance and friendships. Findings suggest more time in ECE is not enough to support children's social acceptance, particularly for children with increased language and behavioral difficulties, who likely require more intensive and individualized interventions to support their peer-related social experiences.

Family nurture in the social skills development of children with intellectual disabilities through daily activities

“…Minimal outdoor activities urge the family to provide opportunities for social development through social activities in the family (Shepley et al, 2018). Social skills for children with ID should be encouraged since early on as these social skills serve as a foun-dation for future life skills (Callahan et al, 2017;Ferreira et al, 2019;Mamta Rani & Hemant Singh Keshwal, 2016;Shepley et al, 2018;Taylor et al, 2017). The cognitive limitations of children with ID in learning social skills should be improved through the direct practice of the activities learnt (Spriggs et al, 2017).…”