ERIC EJ609759: Participation in Inclusive Preschool Programs and Sensitivity to the Needs of Others.

12 Pages·2000·0.9 MB·English

by  ERIC

Journal of Early Intervention
http://jei.sagepub.com
Participation in Inclusive Preschool Programs and Sensitivity to the Needs of
Others
Karen E. Diamond and Ellen S. Carpenter
Journal of Early Intervention 2000; 23; 81
DOI: 10.1177/105381510002300203
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http://jei.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/23/2/81
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REGULAR ARTICLES
Participation in Inclusive Preschool Programs
and Sensitivity to the Needs of Others
KAREN E. DIAMOND
Purdue University
ELLEN S. CARPENTER
Appalachian State University
This study examined how children’s ideas about a prosocial behavior, helping, are related to
their experiences in an inclusive preschool. Thirty three preschool children enrolled in
inclusive classes, and 30 children enrolled in early childhood classes for typically developing
children only participated in the study. Children’s ideas about helping were elicited in
interviews. In addition, preschool teachers rated each child’s prosocial behaviors. Results
revealed that children in inclusive classes received statistically significantly higher helping
strategy scores and were statistically significantly more likely to refer to disability in their
responses than children in early childhood classes for typically developing children only. These
results are consistent with previous work, and suggest that young children are capable of
sensitivity to the needs and competencies of children with disabilities. Implications for
classroom practice are offered.
It is increasingly common for young children possible (Bricker, 1978; Stainback & Stain-
with disabilities to be enrolled in community- back, 1992). This rationale has been inter-
based programs including Head Start, public preted to include participation in the same
school prekindergartens, child care, and pre- high-quality programs that are provided for
school programs. Not only do preschool chil- children without disabilities, along with par-
dren with disabilities participate in a variety ticipation in class activities and in positive re-
of programs in their communities, Wolery and lationships with individual class members.
his colleagues have found that the proportion The Individuals with Disabilities Education
of early childhood programs that included Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabil-
children with disabilities increased from 37% ities Act offer legislative and legal support for
to 74% over the period from 1986-1990 (Wol- inclusion. Educational rationales for inclusion
ery et al., 1993). have typically focused on the developmental
The impetus to provide special education benefits of inclusion for children with disabil-
for young children in settings that include nor- ities, including providing a more challenging
mally developing peers has been supported by and socially responsive learning environment
moral, legal and educational rationales (Bai- with opportunities to learn from more com-
ley, McWilliam, Buysse, & Wesley, 1998). A petent peers (Bricker, 1978).
moral rationale that has been offered in sup- Little attention has been given to the ben-
port of inclusive practices is that children with efits that might accrue for children without
disabilities have a right to a life as normal as disabilities who are enrolled in inclusive pre-
81
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or
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school programs. There is some evidence that who participated in programs with age-mates
normally developing preschool children en- with disabilities, and Kishi and Meyer (1994)
rolled in inclusive classes learn about what it found that teenagers’ attitudes were more pos-
means to have a disability (Diamond, Heste- itive and accepting of people with disabilities
nes, Carpenter & Innes, 1997) and develop an if they had participated in mainstreamed
increased sensitivity and responsiveness to school-based activities during elementary
others (Peck, Carlson, & Helmstetter, 1992). school. When normally developing high
In the study conducted by Diamond and her school students were asked about the ways in
colleagues, children enrolled in inclusive pro- which their interactions with peers with dis-
grams had a better understanding of the long- abilities had affected their lives, they reported
term consequences of physical and sensory seven different types of positive outcomes, in-
disabilities than did children enrolled in early cluding increased responsiveness to others’
childhood programs for typically developing needs (Helmstetter, et al., 1994). These posi-
children only. Diamond and Hestenes (1994) tive outcomes are similar to those reported by
also found that children developed a more parents and teachers of preschool children en-
complete understanding of hearing, deafness, rolled in inclusive early childhood programs.
and sign language when they were enrolled in Positive outcomes reported by these high
a class with a hearing impaired classmate who school students were more likely to occur
used sign language with his teachers. Esposito when they had more opportunities for sus-
and Reed (1986) reported that contact with tained contact and interaction with age-mates
age-mates with disabilities was associated with disabilities. In these studies, typically de-
with long lasting positive gains in young chil- veloping children’s increased responsiveness
dren’s attitudes toward people with disabili- to the needs of others was identified by par-
ties. ents, teachers, and adolescents as an important
In a study of parents’ and teachers’ beliefs outcome of regular interactions at school with
about inclusive preschool programs, Peck and peers with disabilities. We have found no
his colleagues found support for the idea that comparable research with preschool children
inclusive programs provide important social that examines the influence of participation in
benefits for children without disabilities. Par- a setting that includes age-mates with disabil-
ents and teachers reported that participation in ities on children’s responsiveness to others.
an inclusive early childhood program fostered This is the focus of our study.
an acceptance of diversity and the develop- Important to the development of children’s
ment of children’s sensitivity and responsive- prosocial behaviors is their awareness of, and
ness to others. In their study, parents reported responsiveness to, others. Prosocial behavior
that their young, normally developing children has been defined as &dquo;voluntary action intend-
who were enrolled in inclusive preschools dis- ed to aid or benefit another&dquo; (Holmgren, Ei-
played less prejudice and fewer stereotypes, senberg, & Fabes, 1998, p. 169) and includes
and were more responsive and helpful to oth- behaviors such as sharing, helping, support-
ers, than they would have been without this ing, and protecting others. We focus on help-
experience (Peck et al., 1992). In another ing behavior in our research, in part because
study, general education teachers reported that others have found that young children find
children and adolescents without disabilities helping peers with disabilities to be a &dquo;natu-
became increasingly aware of the needs of ral, pleasant experience&dquo; (Grenot-Scheyer,
others when they were enrolled in a class that Staub, Peck, & Schwartz, 1998, p. 153). In
included a child with a severe disability addition, from the child’s perspective helping
(Giangreco, Dennis, Coninger, Edelman, & does not necessarily require that the child
Schattman, 1993). ’give up’ resources to another child. Factors
In studies with older children, Helmstetter, that have been implicated in the development
Peck, and Giangreco (1994) reported positive of helping behaviors include cognitive factors,
outcomes of inclusion for high school students such as empathy and role-taking ability (Ei-
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or
unauthorized distribution.
senberg & Miller, 1987) and family factors associated with their participation in an inclu-
(Richman, Berry, Bittle, & Himan, 1988). sive preschool class. We focused primarily on
Children as young as 18 months of age have children’s ideas about helping, rather than
been observed to offer help or assistance to helping behaviors in the classroom, because
others (Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, Wagner, previous research suggests that while pre-
& Chapman, 1992). Naturalistic observations school children often have ideas about how
in preschool classrooms that do not include they might help in specific situations, actual
children with disabilities suggest that most opportunities for helping may be limited (Ca-
children provide assistance to their peers, al- plan & Hay, 1989). In addition, opportunities
though the frequency of providing help varies to help a classmate may not be equally dis-
from child to child and from study to study. tributed across different classes of young chil-
Iannotti (1985), in an observational study of dren. Radke-Yarrow, Zahn-Waxler, and Chap-
naturally occurring prosocial events in pre- man (1983) suggested that children learn pro-
school classrooms, found that the majority of social behaviors, such as helping, by observ-
cooperative and sharing acts were in response ing and modeling others. If observing and
to the request of another child or teacher, modeling, however, are components in chil-
while most helping behaviors occurred spon- dren’s learning of prosocial behaviors, one
taneously. There also was anecdotal evidence would expect that children in inclusive pre-
that children understood the feelings of others, school classes have more ideas about, and
were aware of another child’s need for assis- strategies for, helping others (especially class-
tance, and acted on that information. mates with disabilities) than peers in pre-
While the research described above exam- school classes with typically developing chil-
ined the likelihood that children would offer dren only. Thus, we hypothesized that chil-
assistance when given the opportunity to do dren enrolled in inclusive preschool classes
so, Stockdale, Hegland and Chiaramonte would (a) have more knowledge about strat-
(1989) examined naturally occurring prosocial egies for helping others, particularly people
behaviors during free play in preschool. They with disabilities, and be more sensitive to the
found that helping opportunities occurred rel- presence of a child’s disability, and (b) receive
atively infrequently and that children were higher ratings of prosocial behavior from their
most likely to help when they were asked to teachers, than children in preschool classes
do so by the teacher. Similarly, Caplan and with typically developing children only. Be-
Hay (1989) reported that only 11% of epi- cause others have found gender differences in
sodes of distress they observed in preschool young children’s prosocial behaviors (Bur-
classrooms elicited a prosocial response from ford, Foley, Rollins, & Rosario, 1996), we hy-
a peer. They suggested, however, that teachers pothesized that girls would receive higher pro-
typically responded quickly to a child’s dis- social behavior ratings than boys, regardless
tress, thereby leaving few opportunities for of their preschool experience.
children to respond. Follow-up interviews
about specific distress episodes revealed that METHOD
although most children (71 %) offered at least
one strategy for intervening, 92% of children Participants. Participants were recruited from
said it was the teacher, not the child, who was two community child care programs serving
&dquo;supposed to help&dquo;. More recently, Diamond, children 2 to 6 years of age. The first was a
Cooper and Keim (1997) found that children full-inclusion program (3 classes) in which
in inclusive classes often described the role of children with and without disabilities partici-
therapist or paraprofessional aide as that of a pated in the same classes throughout the day.
’helper’ for a classmate with a disability. Intervention services were provided for chil-
The study presented here examines the dren with disabilities within the context of on-
ways in which children’s ideas about helping going classroom activities. The second was a
others (primarily people with disabilities) are child care program with three classes and no
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or
unauthorized distribution.
children with disabilities enrolled at the time child-initiated and child-directed activities,
of the study. Letters of invitation describing with children’s individual goals embedded
the research, along with consent forms, were within these activities (see Bricker, 1998).
sent home with the parents of all English- Specialized interventions occurred as part of
speaking 3- to 6-year-old children enrolled in classroom activities (e.g., mobility training in
these classes (N = 97); 68% of all eligible the classroom and on the playground). Teach-
children were given permission to participate ers included all children in small- and large-
in this study. Two children declined to partic- group activities, but there were no specific in-
ipate and one child moved from the commu- terventions targeted at helping children to be-
nity during the study. come more aware of disabilities, social inter-
Participants were 33 preschool children (11I actions, or strategies for helping others. Data
females) between the ages of 42 and 69 were collected in the spring of the school year,
months (M = 60, SD = 6.9) who were en- and all children had been enrolled in their
rolled in inclusive classes, and 30 children (18 class for at least 3 months prior to data col-
females) between the ages of 42 and 68 lection.
months (M = 56, SD = 8.1 ) enrolled in pre-
school classes with typically developing chil- Procedures
dren only. The ethnic background of the chil- Each child participated in one interview ses-
dren, which was comparable across the two sion with the second author. Each interview
centers, was as follows: Caucasian (90%), lasted approximately 20 minutes and was
Asian (5%), and African-American (5%). Ini- completed in a small room away from the
tial analyses revealed that children in inclu- child’s classroom. Teachers were given copies
sive classes were statistically significantly old- of the prosocial rating measure, and they were
er, t (61) = -2.6, p < .01, and were more asked to complete one measure for each par-
likely to be boys X2 ( 1 ) = 4.5, p < .05, than ticipating child.
children in preschool classes with typically
developing children only. Consequently, age Measures
was included as a covariate and gender was Helping interview. This interview consisted
included as a between-subjects variable in all of eight short vignettes adapted from Rubin’s
analyses. Social Problem Solving Task-Revised
Setting. In the inclusive classes, 15% - (1988). It was designed to explore children’s
20% of the children had been identified by the ideas about the strategies that they might use
local school district as having a disability that to help another child. The eight vignettes
required an IER In Classroom 1, there was (helping stories) included two vignettes about
one child with expressive language delay, one a child with a physical disability, two about a
child with mental retardation, and one child child unable to see, two about a child unable
with a limb deformity that interfered with to hear, and two about a child without a dis-
fine-motor tasks. Classroom 2, had a child ability. The disabilities used in the vignettes
with moderate-severe hearing loss and a child were selected because research suggests most
with a physical disability that required the use preschool children have a basic understanding
of braces and a walker. Classroom 3 included of physical and sensory disabilities (Conant &
a child with limited vision, a child with a Budoff, 1983; Diamond, Hestenes et al.,
physical disability that required the use of a 1997), regardless of their experiences with
wheelchair, and one child with mental retar- people with disabilities. Each vignette had a
dation. In both centers, class size ranged from male and female version.
14-20 children. Both programs followed the In order to provide additional cues about
National Association for the Education of the meaning of each disability, small dolls that
Young Children developmentally appropriate were the same gender as the subject were used
practices guidelines (Bredekamp & Copple, with the vignettes. As recommended by others
1997). Inclusive classes were organized for (e.g., Denham, 1986, Ramsey, 1988) dolls
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or
unauthorized distribution.
were used in order to provide a familiar me- were asked to base their responses on their
dium that both lessened processing demands observations, and to complete each question-
and increased the contextual validity of the naire on their own. This measure is reported
measures. One doll was modified to represent by the authors to have adequate test-retest re-
a child with a physical disability (using a liability (r = .91) and validity. Ratings of the
wheelchair), another to represent a child with teacher and assistant teacher were significant-
a hearing loss (with hearing aids and an au- ly correlated (r = .47, p < .01), and a mean
ditory trainer), and a third to represent a child score (based on teacher and assistant teacher
with a vision impairment (eyes without defi- ratings) was computed for each child.
nition between pupil and iris). A fourth doll Data Reduction. Children’s helping strat-
was not modified, and represented a child egies were coded using a scheme adapted
without a disability. Every effort was made to from Costin & Jones, 1992. Coding of all of
ensure that the adaptations were representative the interview transcripts was completed in-
of the disability, although there was not nec- dependently by two coders who were blind to
essarily a child with that disability in the pre- the enrollment status (inclusive class, pre-
school program. Because the focus of the in- school class with typically developing chil-
terview questions was on the child’s ideas dren only) of the child. Agreement was
about helping and not on the disability per se, reached for 97% of interview questions, with
the disability of each doll was described to the disagreements resolved through discussion.
child at the time the doll was introduced (e.g., Responses were coded 1 if the child gave no
&dquo;Let’s pretend this doll is real. His name is response, or said I don’t know, 2 for a strategy
Paul. Paul’s eyes look different because they not appropriate to story (e.g., offering to
don’t work. He can’t see.&dquo;). share in a story that required helping) or an
Vignettes were presented in random order unelaborated helping response (e.g., &dquo;I would
and following each vignette, the child was help him&dquo;), and 3 for an appropriate helping
asked, &dquo;What will happen next?&dquo; If the child strategy. For each child, a mean strategy score
answered that s/he would help, but offered no was calculated. Scores could range from 1 to 3.
specific strategy for helping, the interviewer In addition to coding children’s helping
asked, &dquo;How would you help?&dquo; If the child strategies, we also devised a disability refer-
did not spontaneously offer an idea about ence score based on children’s specific refer-
helping, the interviewer prompted the child to ence to a disability. If the child’s response
think of ways to help by asking, &dquo;Is there made an explicit reference to the doll’s dis-
something you could do?&dquo; If the child simply ability or the disability related equipment (e.
responded &dquo;yes,&dquo; the child was asked to de- g. wheelchair, auditory trainer), a disability
scribe what he or she might do. (Copies of reference score of 1 was given. A disability
vignettes can be obtained by writing the first reference score of 0 was given for responses
author.) After completing all the helping vi- that made no reference to the disability. For
gnettes, the child was asked why he or she example, if a child responded &dquo;I’d tell her to
helped other children, and why other children go,&dquo; after hearing the story about a child with
might help others. Children’s responses were a hearing loss, a disability reference score of
recorded verbatim, with audiotaping used to 0 would be given. If the response, however,
verify the written record. was &dquo;I’ll get close to her and look at her and
Teacher Questionnaire. The prosocial be- tell her it’s time to go out. I can use my hands
haviors of children were assessed with the to tell her,&dquo; the disability reference score
Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire (Weir & would be 1. Scores across the six disability-
Duveen, 1981), a 20 item list of statements related vignettes were totaled to create a
that described prosocial classroom behaviors summed disability reference score. The poten-
for each child in the study. This questionnaire tial range of this score was 0 to 6. Two coders,
was completed independently by the class- blind to participants’ enrollment status, inde-
room teacher and assistant teacher. Teachers pendently coded responses to all vignettes,
85
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or
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Table 1.
Mean strategy scores for children in inclusive classes and preschool classes with only typically
developing children.
ap<.OS
bp<.O1
with agreement for 96% of items. Disagree- jects independent variables; age was entered
ments were resolved through discussion. as a covariate. Using Wilk’s Lambda criterion,
Categories for describing children’s motives the combined dependent variables were statis-
for helping were created inductively by two tically significantly affected by classroom type
coders working independently. First, each (A = .78, F = 7.84, df = 2, 56, p < .001) but
coder developed categories he or she felt best not by gender (F = .42, p = ns). Children in
represented the range of children’s responses inclusive classes had statistically significantly
to questions about why they help. Then, cod- higher helping strategies scores (F = 3.91, p
ers met with the second author to discuss cat- < .05) and disability reference scores (F =
egories until mutually agreed-upon categories 13.4, p < .001) than children in preschool
emerged. Finally, six categories were defined: classes with typically developing children
(a) helping because one is told to do so, (b) only. Group means are shown in Table 1 and
helping to gain a reward, (c) helping because examples of strategies children offered for
the person is my friend, (d) helping because helping peers with different disabilities are
my friend helps me, (e) it is nice to help, and provided in Table 2.
(f) no response or &dquo;I don’t know&dquo;. Children’s Our second hypothesis was that children in
responses were coded by two coders working inclusive classes would receive higher ratings
independently. Agreement on 94% of the re- of prosocial behavior from their teachers than
sponses was reached and disagreements were children enrolled in preschool classes for only
resolved through discussion.
typically developing children. We also hy-
pothesized that girls would receive higher pro-
RESULTS
social behavior ratings than boys, regardless
Our first hypothesis was that children enrolled of their preschool experience. We examined
in inclusive preschool programs would have differences in teachers’ ratings of children’s
more knowledge about strategies for helping prosocial behaviors for children enrolled in in-
people, particularly people with disabilities, clusive preschool classes and preschool clas-
and they would be more sensitive to a child’s ses for typically developing children only us-
disability, than children enrolled in preschool ing a 2 (classroom: inclusive, typically devel-
classes with typically developing children oping children only) by 2 (gender) ANCOVA
only. We used multivariate analysis of covari- with age as a covariate. There were statisti-
ance (MANCOVA) to test this hypothesis. cally significant main effects of classroom (F
The dependent variables for this analysis were = 20.9, df = 1, 5 8, p < .0001) and gender (F
the helping strategies score and disability ref- = 26.2, df = 1, 58, p < .0001) but no sig-
erence score. Classroom type (inclusive class nificant classroom by gender interaction (F =
or preschool class with typically developing 0.19). Teachers rated children in inclusive pro-
children only) and gender were between-sub- grams as statistically significantly more pro-
86
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or
unauthorized distribution.
Table 2.
Examples of vignettes and children’s helping strategies ’
social than children in classes with typically relation analysis. Results of this analysis re-
developing children only, and girls received vealed that teachers’ scores were statistically
higher prosocial ratings than did boys (see Ta- significantly correlated with children’s helping
ble 3). Because individual teachers rated the strategy scores (r = .35, p < .01).
children in their classes, there is no way to Finally, we explored the reasons children
insure comparability in teachers’ ratings offered for helping. Almost half of the chil-
across classes (i.e., that two teachers in dif- dren in each program referred to friendship as
ferent classes would rate the same behaviors the primary reason for helping another child
in the same way). As one way to address the (e.g., &dquo;Kids help because they are friends.&dquo;).
issue of reliability of teachers’ ratings, we ex- Children also referred to external demands
amined the relationship between teachers’ rat- (e.g., &dquo;I help because the teacher says I have
ings and children’s helping scores using cor- to&dquo;), intrinsic rewards for themselves (e.g., &dquo;I
Table 3.
Prosocial behavior ratings for children in inclusive classes and classes with typically developing
children only
87
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or
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help kids because I like to do it&dquo;) and positive for helping occur more often in inclusive clas-
outcomes for the child being helped (e.g., ses, because children with disabilities often
&dquo;Kids help so other kids will feel better&dquo;) as need assistance with classroom tasks in a way
explanations for helping. When a median split that is not required for normally developing
was performed on age, we found that a ma- children. Thus, in inclusive settings normally
jority of older children (67%) indicated their developing children may have more opportu-
reason for offering help was they learned to nities to observe others who are helping, in-
help from an adult, while this question most cluding adults. Children also may learn help-
often elicited a response of &dquo;I don’t know&dquo; ing strategies when they comply with teach-
from younger children (z = 2.7, p < .001 ). ers’ requests to provide assistance to a peer.
In a recent study, Salisbury and Palombaro
DISCUSSION (1998) found that teachers in early elementary
classrooms often asked children to provide
The results of this study support the hypoth- routine assistance for their classmates with
esis that children in inclusive early childhood disabilities. This assistance might include
classrooms have more ideas about, and strat- pushing a wheelchair, looking at a book to-
egies for, helping others, particularly people gether during reading time, or getting mate-
with disabilities, than do children in classes rials for another child. Just as opportunities to
that do not include children with disabilities. share are emphasized in many early childhood
These findings are consistent with the obser- classrooms, it may be that teachers in inclu-
vations of parents and teachers, as well as the sive preschool classes provide many oppor-
reports of adolescents, that regular opportu- tunities for children to help each other. Gren-
nities to interact with age-mates with disabil- ot-Scheyer and her colleagues (1998) noted
ities are associated with increased awareness that helping is a positive experience for young
of, and sensitivity to, the needs of others children, one that enhances their self-esteem
(Helmstetter et al., 1994; Peck et al., 1992). and makes them ’feel good’ about what they
These results, along with previous research, can do. To the extent that early childhood
suggest that young children enrolled in inclu- teachers recognize this as an important out-
sive classes may be more aware of specific come, they may be more inclined to ask chil-
needs of people with disabilities, and have dren to help each other. This is a question de-
more ideas about how they might help, than serving further investigation.
children enrolled in preschool classes with In addition, we found that children in in-
typically developing children only. clusive classes were more likely than other
We note, however, that although we found children to refer to a child’s disability when
statistically significant differences in helping suggesting helping strategies. This finding is
strategies between the two groups of children, consistent with the work of Diamond and her
examination of the mean scores suggests that colleagues (Diamond, Hestenes, et al., 1997)
children from both groups were inclined to who have reported that normally developing
help the child in the story. Others have found children in inclusive preschool programs are
that prosocial behaviors tend to emerge during more aware of the competencies and difficul-
the 2nd year of life (Zahn-Waxler et al., 1992) ties of people with orthopedic and sensory
and that children enjoy the opportunity to help disabilities than are children without these ex-
others (Grenot-Scheyer et al., 1998). Thus, periences. One can only speculate that chil-
while most young children have a variety of dren who participated in our study may have
ideas about what they could do to help some- been more likely to offer strategies for helping
one, children who have experiences with peers because they recognized that the child in the
with disabilities may have more ideas about vignette had a disability.
strategies they might use to help someone who Children in inclusive classes received high-
has a disability. er prosocial behavior ratings from their teach-
It would not be surprising if opportunities ers than did children in preschool classes for
88
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or
unauthorized distribution.
only typically developing children. As noted If true, one would expect to find, even at the
earlier, teachers rated only children in their beginning of the school year, that children en-
class. This may have introduced a systematic rolled in inclusive classes would have notice-
bias to the ratings, particularly if teachers in ably more ideas about prosocial strategies,
inclusive classes felt it was socially desirable such as helping others, than would other chil-
to rate their students as showing positive pro- dren. In addition, these differences between
social behaviors. The fact that teachers’ rat- children in inclusive classes and classes for
ings and children’s helping strategy scores only typically developing children should in-
were positively correlated suggests, however, crease over the course of the year as a func-
that both of these measures assessed similar tion of children’s experiences at home and at
behaviors. We suggested earlier that teachers school.
in inclusive classes may provide their students
with specific opportunities to help classmates IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
with disabilities. If this is the case, then teach-
ers also have more opportunities to observe Developing social relationships with age-ma-
their students’ prosocial behaviors because the tes is an important task for all children, in-
teacher prompted the student to perform the cluding children with disabilities. Friendships,
behavior. A majority of the older children in even among young children, are typically
this study said that they learned to help from thought of as existing between relatively equal
adults. Asking a child to help a classmate is partners (Guralnick, 1999). Helping relation-
one way that teachers may teach and reinforce ships, on the other hand, are inherently hier-
these behaviors. archical and unequal, particularly when one
We speculate that children in inclusive clas- partner (a normally developing child) is typi-
ses may often come from families that value cally in the role of the helper, providing as-
diversity in others and deliberately choose to sistance to another (a child with a disability).
enroll their children in classes that support di- Thus, some would argue that when one child
versity. Location and price, rather than spe- consistently provides assistance to another
cific aspects of the program, are important fac- child, these children are not friends because
tors influencing parents’ choice of child care of the inherent inequality in their relationship.
centers (cf. Helbum, 1995). Although it is We argue, however, that helping others is a
likely that this was also important for the fam- prosocial behavior that leads to cooperation
ilies who participated in this study, the pro- and ethically responsive behavior (Stanhope,
grams in which we collected data had similar Bell, & Parker-Cohen, 1987). Furthermore,
tuition fees and waiting lists. Parents of chil- helping others benefits the child who is pro-
dren in inclusive preschool programs have re- viding the assistance as well as the child being
ported that they value opportunities the inclu- helped. Indeed, parents report increased sen-
sive experience provides their child (Peck et sitivity to the needs of others is an important
al., 1992). Recently, Okagaki, Diamond, Kon- outcome of their child’s participation in an in-
tos, and Hestenes (1998) found a relationship clusive preschool program (Peck et al., 1992).
between the frequency with which preschool Children enjoy the opportunity to help each
children enrolled in inclusive programs played other, and learning how and when to help, and
in close proximity to classmates with disabil- when to allow another child to try a task in-
ities and parents’ beliefs about the value of dependently are skills children can learn at
interacting with children with disabilities. school while experiencing the mutual pleasure
This finding suggests a parent’s beliefs and of social contact with peers. To the extent that
values about inclusion have an impact on their children learn about helping by watching and
child’s ideas and behaviors. Enrolling a child modeling adults, it is critical that adults (e.g.,
in an inclusive program provides parents with teachers, paraprofessional aides, therapists,
a way to encourage the development of pro- consultants) in the classroom think about
social behaviors they value and teach at home. these issues when providing support and as-
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