Children\u27s play and teacher-child interactions in integrated early childhood programs

The play of children with and without disabilities in integrated early childhood programs was observed vis-a-vis their interactions with teachers in order to examine relationships between teachers\u27 behaviors and children\u27s play behaviors. Observational measures included children\u27s mean cognitive and social play levels and teachers\u27 behaviors, including no involvement, involvement in routines, watching, and facilitation of either cognitive or social aspects of the children\u27s play. Twenty-eight children, fourteen of whom had mild/moderate cognitive and/or speech/language delays and fourteen of whom were normally developing, and their teachers were observed. Results indicated that cognitive play levels were similar for the children with and without disabilities. The mean social play level was significantly lower for the children with disabilities in comparison to the normally developing children, however. There was no difference in how frequently teachers supported the cognitive play of children with and without disabilities. However, the majority of support received by children with disabilities was direct in nature, while the majority of support received by children without disabilities was indirect in nature. Teachers rarely intervened with children to support their social play, and when they did so, the support was overwhelmingly direct in nature, regardless of the child\u27s developmental status. Additional measures of classroom program quality indicated that the classroom ratio and teacher training in early childhood education were correlated with teacher behaviors. The behaviors of the classroom teaching staff showed little correlation with the beliefs expressed by head teachers about the developmental progress of the children, however. These results are discussed in relation to early intervention literature, and the concern expressed therein regarding social integration of children with disabilities, as well as Vygotskian-based literature regarding the individualization of teaching within the zone of proximal development