Susan R. Copeland

Factors Influencing Social Interaction Among High School Students With Intellectual Disabilities and Their General Education Peers

Recent legislative, policy, and research initiatives affirm the importance of improving social outcomes for adolescents with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Using observational methodology, we examined the influence of level of integration and Peer Buddy proximity on social interaction between students with intellectual disabilities and their general education peers in high school settings. Similarities and differences were found between more and less integrated settings with respect to contextual variables and measures of social interaction. Across settings, the proximity of a Peer Buddy was associated with higher frequency interactions and more positive student affect. Implications regarding increasing social interaction among high school students are discussed.

Increasing Access to General Education Perspectives of Participants in a High School Peer Support Program

We obtained perspectives on increasing access to general education from high school students who provided ongoing support to their peers with moderate or severe disabilities. Focus groups were conducted with 32 high school students without disabilities representative of students who participated in a structured service-learning peer support program. Analysis of their comments resulted in four categories of student responses: (a) perceived challenges to general education participation; (b) action taken by peer supports to increase access to general education by students with disabilities; (c) recommendations for improving a peer support program; and (d) perceived benefits to participating students and teachers. Findings are discussed and recommendations are provided for (a) refining a model of peer support to promote peer interaction and access to general education and (b) informing practice.

An intervention package to support high school students with mental retardation in general education classrooms.

The effects of using a multicomponent intervention package to support the classroom performance of 4 high school students with mental retardation enrolled in general education classes were investigated. Intervention components were (a) modification of teacher-assigned worksheets, (b) instruction in assignment completion, (c) instruction in self-monitoring of classroom performance skills, (d) including students in setting performance goals, and (e) instruction in goal-evaluation. Implementation of the intervention package was associated with improved performance on modified assignments for all participants and higher report card grades for 3 participants. Three of 4 participants also correctly and independently evaluated their performance in relation to their performance goals. Findings are discussed and recommendations made for future research and practice.

High School Peer Buddies: A Win-Win Situation.

was sitting in Mr. Cheney’s thirdperiod biology class staring at a blank piece of paper on her desk. The students around her were chatting with each other as they cut out pictures from magazines to illustrate categories in a taxonomy. Mr. Cheney looked up, saw Carla, and wondered yet again how he was supposed to teach all 30 students in his class and assist Carla, who had a cognitive disability, to participate in classroom activities. He had planned the activity with Carla in mind, thinking she would enjoy it, but something was not working. Instead of choosing pictures with her classmates and enjoying the chance to socialize, Carla was just sitting there, staring at her paper. Being a part of his class should have given Carla opportunities to learn new things and make friends. It just wasn’t turning out as Mr. Cheney had hoped. What was he doing wrong?

Increasing Social Interaction Between General Education High School Students and Their Peers with Mental Retardation

We used a multiple-baseline design across participants to assess the effects of a verbal directive on the social interactions of general education high school students enrolled in a peer buddy program and their peers with mental retardation. General education students were asked to interact “as friends” with their peers while they engaged in leisure activities. Delivery of the directive was associated with increases in occurrence of social interaction, improvement in quality and reciprocity of interaction, and increases in range of communication behaviors performed by students with mental retardation. In addition, students discussed a greater variety of conversational topics. Findings are discussed with respect to strategies for increasing social interaction among high school students.

Supporting high school students to engage in recreational activities with peers.

The authors investigated the effects of an intervention package to support five high school students with extensive support-needs to initiate and engage in recreational activities with general-education peers in their physical education classes. The intervention components were (a) assessing participants’ recreational activity goals, (b) teaching self-prompting using a picture book, (c) programming common stimuli, and (d) asking participants to assess daily performance and evaluate daily goal achievement. The intervention was associated with increases in participants’ initiation of and engagement in recreational activities with general-education peers, as well as increases in ratings of quality of interaction. In addition, participants typically assessed with accuracy their performance of recreational activities and whether they had achieved their recreational goals. Findings are discussed with respect to future research and practice.