Having friends and Rett syndrome: how social relationships create meaningful contexts for limited skills

Purpose: The experiences of a teenage girl with Rett syndrome who was being educated in an inclusive middle school are described to provide a better u nderstanding of how social relationships create meaningful contexts for ind ividuals with limited skills. The case example is used to illustrate the pr inciple that contexts (including expectancies, acceptance, philosophical pr inciples) can be designed to support meaningful social relationships, despi te social and intellectual disabilities. Method: Naturalistic observations of social interactions over a two year pe riod are reported to illustrate the possible types of social relationship b etween this young person and her adolescent friends and peers. Results/Conclusions: While someone with this syndrome might be judged objec tively to have minimal social skills, an accepting social environment willi ng to read minimal communicative cues provided the context for many typical social interactions. Since contexts require subjective judgement, the post -modern concept that disability represents a social construction can be vie wed as a metaphor compatible with the reality that careful planning and str ucturing of the environment is in some instances the most appropriate inter vention focus rather than the person with a disability. The sorts of positi ve friendship experiences described in this paper did not occur spontaneous ly, or by chance alone, nor were they the result of social skills instructi on. Instead, they were associated with observable social behaviour by careg ivers and peers who were extending their own repertoires to accommodate som eone objectively determined to have a severe disability.