SPONSORING OFFICE:
Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services

Abstract:
With federal laws mandating inclusion of children in public schools to the maximum extent possible, there are now close to 2 million children in classrooms kindergarten through fourth grade who have disabilities that seriously affect their communication with their peers (National Early Childhood Technical Assistance System, 1999). Studies document that non-disabled children often respond to their disabled peers with uncertainty and rejection and interact with them much less frequently than with their nondisabled peers. This project will develop and determine the feasibility of state-of-the-art materials that can be used by children in the classroom to assist them to comfortably and successfully communicate with their disabled classmates. The materials will incorporate research-based content and innovative instructional design for children. During Phase I of this project, one mediated unit was developed and evaluated to determine its feasibility and use with young children in classroom settings. Phase II will build on the development and field-testing done in Phase I and will result in a series of mediated units containing CD-ROM, video, print materials, discussion guides, and activity kits for use in classrooms by children and their teachers.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:

1. Six mediated units with videotapes, CD-ROM, print materials, follow-up activity kits for children, and discussion guides for teachers will be developed for use by children, K-4th grade.
2. The units will be field tested in classrooms in four school districts that have children with disabilities in them to determine their feasibility of use, and their effects on communication interactions between non-disabled children and their disabled peers. The material will be revised and refined.
3. Marketability will be further studied and preparations will be made to make the sets available for use in classroom settings nationwide. The potential commercial application of the proposed project is the placement of a set of these materials in each classroom in the country that has a child/children in it with disabilities.
4. Once the sets are in school classrooms, children without disabilities will team to communicate comfortably and successfully with their classmates who are disabled thus enabling learning, interactions, and friendships between disabled and non-disabled children to grow and flourish.

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