Does being friendly help in making friends? The relation between the social position and social skills of pupils with special needs in mainstream education
- 1 February 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in European Journal of Special Needs Education
- Vol. 22 (1), 15-30
- https://doi.org/10.1080/08856250601082224
Abstract
Pupils with special needs can have difficulties in building relationships with peers in inclusive education. An important condition for developing positive relationships with peers is having the age‐group appropriate social skills. It seems likely that pupils with an insufficient set of social skills face a larger risk of being excluded. This study describes the social skills of pupils with special needs and relates these to their social position in inclusive classrooms. In total 989 pupils from the 4th and 7th grades participated in the data collection. The analyses are based on three different indexes for social inclusion: peer acceptance, friendships and membership of a cohesive subgroup. The results show that 20% to 25% of the pupils with special needs are not socially included in their peer group. In general social position and social skills show low correlations, but that does not hold for pupils with behaviour problems. Their social position strongly relates to their social skills. For this particular group, social skills training can support them in maintaining contacts, relationships and friendships with their peers.This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social NetworksAnnual Review of Sociology, 2001
- Peer Experience: Common and Unique Features of Number of Friendships, Social Network Centrality, and Sociometric StatusSocial Development, 2001
- A Social Skill Training for Persons with Down's SyndromeEuropean Psychologist, 2000
- Contacts with classmates: the social position of pupils with Down's syndrome in Dutch mainstream educationEuropean Journal of Special Needs Education, 1999
- Social skills, social outcomes, and cognitive features of childhood social phobia.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1999
- The Effects of Peer Networks on Social—Communicative Behaviors for Students with AutismFocus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 1997
- Social skills training with parent generalization: Treatment effects for children with attention deficit disorder.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1997
- Social skills training for withdrawn unpopular children with physical disabilities: A preliminary evaluation.Rehabilitation Psychology, 1997
- Social Mainstreaming of Mildly Handicapped StudentsThe Elementary School Journal, 1992
- A cognitive-social learning approach to social skill training with low-status preschool children.Developmental Psychology, 1990