Promoting Friendships for Preschool Children with Special Needs (continued)

In order to prepare both children for the daily routines at school, speech therapy sessions together, and their play time, photos and then icons (picture symbols) were paired with words (which they recognized) to show the schedule; i.e., first, we arrive by bus, enter our class; then you will play with the trains and later see the speech therapist. Cards and pictures clarified the sequence of events and served to remind and prepare them for transitions. And, most importantly, both children were helped through the use of pictures (always with words underneath) to understand expectations. The team's use of photos, icons, and pictorial representations increased the children's understanding of the daily school schedule and helped them anticipate and respond to each other during interactive play periods which took place in class as well as in the speech therapy.

Both Joseph's and Anthony's mothers supported their efforts. At home, they:

• used pictures to identify feelings and moods
• read and discussed appropriate friendship stories
• helped find suitable playmates (choosing others, with or without disabilities, who seem compatible)
• encouraged twosomes and play dates (noticing common interests and potential matches)

Conclusions

The approach to building friendship skills in preschoolers with special needs proposed in this article emphasizes three inter-related ideas. One, the classroom as the main therapeutic milieu, and, consequently, the teacher or teachers are responsible for creating a beneficial environment. Two, the related services therapist (in this instance, the speech therapist) has dual tasks. The therapist should use his/her specialized knowledge and skill to assess, establish goals and interventions to help the child achieve domain-specific speech IEP objectives. Additionally, therapists can promote the transfer of this learning into more effective classroom performance in two areas: language and social competence. Integrating both aspects is the challenge. Three, this beneficial classroom ecology requires that the teacher(s), the related therapist(s), and parent(s) continuously inform each other and collaborate, e.g., the teacher incorporating strategies and promoting dyads developed through observations and team planning, the related therapist incorporating peer relationships and inter-personal work into her specialty as she observes the teacher carrying out classroom activities, and the parent incorporating ideas and interventions at home and in the community whenever possible.

Facilities that serve preschool children with disabilities, either in inclusionary or self- contained settings, have an obligation to provide experiences that promote the social- emotional competencies needed for children to have successful peer relationships and to facilitate the children's inclusion in as many settings as possible. An approach that provides frequent and appropriate play experiences in settings that include children with disabilities increases the likelihood that they will learn, generalize new behaviors, maintain skills, and hopefully, make new and lasting friends.

About the Author

Judith S. Bloch, ACSW, is the Founder and CEO of Variety Child Learning Center (VCLC), in Syosset, NY, which provides training, evaluations, early intervention and special education for infants and children to age 7.

References

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