EFFECTS OF CLASSROOM SOCIAL-STRUCTURE AND DISABILITY ON ENGAGEMENT

Children with disabilities have been found to be engaged for less time and at lower levels than children without disabilities. The purpose o f this study was to examine further the effects of disability as well as age grouping and adult involvement on engagement, with developmenta l age serving as a covariate. Thirty-two children without disabilities and 16 children with disabilities were observed in four free-play ses sions and four sessions with adult involvement. All observations occur red during regularly scheduled classroom activities. Children with dis abilities were found to spend less time interactively engaged with adu lts, attentionally engaged with peers, and in mastery-level engagement with materials than did children without disabilities; they spent mor e time passively nonengaged. One finding supported mixed-age groups fo r less attentional engagement with peers among all children when adult s were involved, whereas another finding supported same-age groups for less attentional engagement with adults among children with disabilit ies. Two phenomena previously not reported were discovered. First, the re were differences in engagement between children with and children w ithout disabilities, even when controlling for developmental age. Seco nd, at different developmental ages, the qualitative difference betwee n the two groups of children changed. The complex nature of engagement is discussed as it identifies differences associated with disability when controlling for developmental age.