Social Competence in Nonhandicapped, Low Interacting, and Five Handicapped Groups of Preschoolers

Abstract

MANOVAs and ANOVAs were used to compare nonhandicapped children; low interacting children who were not diagnosed as handicapped; and children who were mildly retarded, behaviorally disordered, developmentally delayed, orthopedically handicapped, and speech impaired on social competence measures that included behavior observations and adult and peer ratings. Following significant ANOVAs, paired comparisons were made between each group and every other group. On several of the social competence measures, nonhandicapped and speech impaired children were superior to low interacting, behaviorally disordered, and developmentally delayed children. The other handicapped groups did not differ from the nonhandicapped or from one another, except that the orthopedically handicapped children had more social interactions than the low interactors did.