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The Importance of Friendship: Researchers Study New Ways to Boost Social Lives of Children Who Have A Disability
A grant awarded to principal investigator Pamela Dixon, Ph.D., by the United States Office of Special Education Programs, has helped to launch a three-year set of studies titled the Adult Facilitation of Social Integration Studies (AFSIS). Dixon intends to examine parents’ and teachers’ methods of social facilitation that will best predict the successful social integration of children with brain dysfunction. Specifically, AFSIS will identify "best practices," or most effective friendship-making strategies and programs in homes and at schools that parents and teachers can become involved in. It is predicted that these will not only benefit children with disabilities, but their classmates as well.
AFSIS is based on previous studies, which show that children with physical and cognitive impairments have a heightened risk of difficulty in peer relationships. It is harder for them to make friends and they are more inclined to suffer from the negative aspects of not being fully merged into the peer social culture. This is particularly related to the brain-processing impairments that children with brain impairments have which distort the child’s understanding of critical ways to make and keep friends.
Children who interact with other children well are more likely to do better in school and less likely to suffer from psychological problems into adulthood. Schools that include children with disabilities in their programming have been shown to positively affect friendships among all types of children, particularly those with disabilities. However, these programs alone have not fully lead to the successful social integration of students with disabilities.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) amendments of 1997, intending to address the social support needs of children with disabilities, set the stage for the inclusion of students with disabilities to become involved in the general school and classroom curriculum. Upwards of 70% of children have been shown under the IDEA to become involved in regular education classrooms. Since the IDEA amendments, however, it has become apparent that when a student with a disability is present or included in regular education settings it does not necessarily mean that he or she will become fully integrated into the school’s greater social network as well as its specific peer culture.
In addition to classroom organizational changes in the schools resulting from the IDEA amendments, Dixon has proposed more can be done to help children with disabilities make friends. Parents and teachers, who play a large role in the day to day caretaking activities and supervision of a child’s social life, can have a powerful impact upon the youngster’s friendship-making abilities. Her study aims to identify direct parent and teacher activities such as parent advocacy and parents’ direct involvement that tailor peer interactions. These might include setting up play dates, creating a buddy system on the playground, or allowing the child to play at another child’s home—activities that assist children’s social integration especially in the school setting.
Additionally, Dixon is identifying the social behaviors and characteristics of children with disabilities that will predict a child’s successful friendship development with other youngsters. She has also chosen to explore the uniqueness in friendship-making problems as it relates to different types of disabilities stemming from cognitive versus physical impairment.
What Can Parents and Teachers Do to Help?
As Dixon’s study begins to uncover what adults can do to help children build friendships, this information will be used to influence school programming and parenting practices as well. Preliminary findings from the AFSIS have been presented at national and local conferences. These offer early insight into the ways that parents and teachers can help boost the social life experienced by children with brain dysfunction. For more information, go to the project Web site
or contact Dr. Dixon at 734-936-7052.
The AFSIS Project is a collaborative study conducted by the University of Michigan Health System, Pediatric Rehabilitation Program and Division of Rehabilitation Psychology and Neuropsychology, in collaboration with the Washtenaw County Intermediate School District. The Project Investigators include Pamela Dixon, Ph.D., Seth Warschausky, Ph.D., and Mary Spence, Ph.D.
This article was reprinted with permission from the authors, Sean Cunningham, M.S., and Sunny Roller, M.A., AFSIS.
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