Learning Disabled and IMon-LD Children at Play

This investigation used sociometric measures in conjunction with observational techniques in studying the social integration of learning disabled elementary school children. Thirty-four learning disabled and non~LD children were observed on the school playground for a total of 90 minutes each. Few substantive differences between the LD and non-LD groups were observed. The learning disabled children tended to play alone more often. Sociometric questionnaires administered to classmates of the experi-mental group children indicated that the learning disabled children had lower status than the non-LD children, and that the non-LD children played with about half of the LD children for whom they expressed liking. SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF THE learning disabled child has received increased attention in recent years and has been a major criterion in determining the suc-cess of mainstreaming (Pearl, Bryan, & Donahue, 1983). An assumption of mainstreaming is that placement of learning disabled children in situations that maximize integration in the regular school program will foster social acceptance and positive social behavior (Blacher-Dixon & Turnbull, 1979; Guralnick, 1976). Although the least restrictive environment doctrine was mandated in 1975, scant empirical validation exists to support mainstream-ing's assumptions (Gottlieb, 1981). The overwhelming majority of research that has accumulated to date has focused on classroom environments. Far fewer studies have examined the effects of mainstreaming in other environments. This investigation was designed to study one aspect of the social adjustment of mildly learning disabled elementary school-aged children during main-streaming—their behavior on the playground. Currently used indices of social integration of learn-ing disabled youngsters rely heavily on research which utilizes sociometric measures of social acceptance. The most prevalent and consistent finding according to these measures is that learning disabled children are less well accepted than their non-LD classmates (Bruininks, 1978