This study examined the influence of information about children's disabilities on preschool teachers' responses toward integrating children with disabilities in their classroom. Of particular interest was whether the severity of the child's educational needs and information about diagnosis were related to teachers' responses. Data were collected…

Presented videotaped "Sesame Street" segments to explore preschoolers' ideas about disabilities. Found that most were aware that the videotaped children had difficulty performing age-appropriate tasks, but had fewer ideas about why the child with Down syndrome had difficulty than about the child using a wheelchair. Significantly more…

Inclusive programs and community settings are important contexts to help foster acceptance and understanding among all children. Research has shown that children enrolled in inclusive programs become more accepting of people who are different from them. Inclusion of children with disabilities in classroom activities requires the involvement of…

Forty-five preschool children were interviewed and their classrooms observed to determine their ideas about helping others, their understanding of emotions, their acceptance of individuals with disabilities, and their social contact with classmates with disabilities. Children with social contact with disabled classmates had significantly higher…

Examined preschool children's perceptions of the social competence of peers with and without disabilities. Subjects, in two classes that included six children with mild-to-severe developmental disabilities, indicated acceptance of their peers and their use of different problem-solving strategies. The disability status of the peer did not affect…

Explores the impact of having a hearing-impaired peer on preschool children's understanding of hearing and deafness, comparing children with and without a hearing-impaired peer. All children referred to their own experiences to explain hearing loss. Children with a hearing-impaired classmate understood sign language and the consequences of hearing…

Interviews with 46 nondisabled children (ages 3 to 6) in inclusive programs found that most children were aware of physical disability, half the children were aware of sensory disabilities, but no children expressed an awareness of Down syndrome. Children were most sensitive to effects of a physical disability on a child's motor performance. (DB)

Comparison of children enrolled in regular (N=31) and inclusive (N=29) preschool programs found that children in inclusive settings had more knowledge of disabilities and gave higher acceptance ratings to children with and without disabilities than did children in regular preschool classes. (DB)

Two studies examined the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of typically-developing children attending inclusive, university- or community-based early-childhood programs and the beliefs of their parents. Found that parents' beliefs and children's attitudes toward children with disabilities were positively related to the frequency of children's…

A study involving 40 typical preschoolers and their mothers found they talked more about children with physical disabilities than those with Down syndrome during a storytelling task, and that children's comments about children with physical disabilities were positively related to teachers' ratings of children's interactions with classmates with…