Examining Social Acceptance Levels of Children with Special Needs and Typical Development in Preschool Classrooms

Abstract

The aim of this study is investigating social acceptance levels of children with special needs and typical development. For this two group of children’s social acceptance, developmental functions, problem behavior, social skills, teacher-student relationship and school adjustment levels were compared, relations between these variables were investigated and the variables which predicted social acceptance were determined. In this study data collected from 47 children with special needs and 47 children with typical development who attended preschools by using Sociometric Rating Scale, Ability Index, Student-Teacher Relationship Scale-Short Form, Short Form
of Teacher Rating Scale of School Adjustment and Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scale. Findings showed that children with special needs have significantly lower social acceptance, social skills and school adjustment levels than their typically developing peers, furthermore their ability index and problem behavior levels are higher than their typically developing peers and problem behavior is the strongest predictor of social acceptance