Promoting Friendships for Preschool Children with Special Needs (continued)

Creating a Pro-Social Environment

Interventions in small group settings can be exceptionally potent. It is within a small group that teachers and related therapists can observe and provide experiences in which the child works out problems and feelings that interfere with relationships as they occur or immediately after the event. A group experience is often a child's main social experience in life, after home. The child's responses to this world - adults, peers, specific activities, and materials - provide significant data which enable teachers and related therapists to understand him/her better. The child's temperament, learning, coping style, as well as relationship patterns, are all demonstrated in the interactions with adults and age-mates.

Adult responses that are not verbalizations about past behavior or even anticipated behavior but are immediate on-the-spot interactions may result in alternative responses and solutions that are useful to the children involved. The selection of activities and curriculum, the use of materials and space, and most importantly, the adult's approach and reactions to behavior are major considerations. And, interventions that promote peer interaction are even more effective when coordinated and implemented across settings; in related services by therapists and at home by families.

Designing curriculums with two goals

The traditional preschool programs for children with special needs usually recommend individual therapies; a one-to-one relationship with an adult and a specific focus on one domain of development, e.g., speech, motor, sensory. Such an approach misses an important opportunity to promote and reinforce social competencies, neglecting the fact that these children are less likely to have experiences which foster peer interaction. It is, however, possible to achieve both objectives - improved skill development and positive social development - if we re-visit the early intervention and preschool systems and their untapped potential to promote social-emotional competence and early friendships.⁷ Since social competence and language are closely related, curriculums that will achieve two goals may be designed so the children can interact, prompt, and motivate each other to participate in the activity and, at the same time, achieve their therapy goal. A comprehensive program that would utilize the best of individualized targeted intervention and interactive peer intervention would include the following aspects:

1. Initiation of individual language therapy to give the therapist time to assess the child and draw upon the discipline's specialized knowledge to set instructional objectives.

2. Observation of the child in the group setting provides an opportunity for the therapist to get to know the child and later conference with the teacher so that "match-making" with an appropriate peer can begin.

3. Creation of pairs and small groups in which activities are designed that will prompt reciprocity through the use of the children's spontaneous interests and responses to each other and their therapist.

4. Identification of learning objectives in order to plan strategies and anticipate behaviors that address both the relationship priority and the domain-specific developmental goal.

5. At the same time, the teacher in the classroom, through curriculum and play, offers "social skills lessons" designed to promote successful peer exchanges and reinforce relationships developed during therapies.

Increasing Social Inclusion: Case example

Following is the story of Joseph, which illustrates the way concepts of social inclusion were applied to help a classified child in an inclusionary program receiving Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT)⁸ services and speech therapy. Joseph, diagnosed with a disorder on the spectrum of autism and pervasive developmental disorder, had no apparent interest in his classmates and a great deal of interest in small cars and trains which he chose to play with in a limited and repetitive pattern whenever he could. He also had strong visual skills but limited and delayed language skills. It was obvious that Joseph could not yet reach out to approach another child and would not be responsive to the usual approach by a classmate. On the other hand, Joseph was a compliant child with a readiness to accept the proximity of a classmate and a capacity to learn. A plan was developed by the two teachers (regular nursery and SEIT) and speech therapist to use his play interest to begin the friend-making process. Since Joseph was not the only boy who loved trains, his preoccupation attracted Anthony, who was not a child with special needs, and created an opportunity for peer interaction during free play. The teacher built upon the boys' shared interest in small trains by preparing a train station for them, adding dolls (conductors and passengers), and expanding on the materials and equipment. At first, Joseph simply tolerated Anthony's proximity. He became attentive to Anthony when he brought equipment that the staff knew (from mom) that Joseph had at home or that was new and selected to stir interest. A reading program using sight picture words of high interest, e.g., train, caboose, etc., and stories on the same theme supplemented the play. Fortunately, Anthony also shared Joseph's interest in pictures and words. Icons and pictures that were used to help Joseph were of value to Anthony, promoting his pre-emerging literacy skills. As a more related child, with more appropriate social behavior, he could be relied upon to respond to the teacher's introduction of new materials, suggestions for interactions, and a more stimulating use of the play environment. At the same time, the children's relationship was additionally supported by the staff's non-intrusive verbal or non-verbal assistance.