Causal analysis and treatments for the social maladaptation of young children with learning disabilities

1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 10610128
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 教育・社会系心理学
• Research Institution: Miyazaki University
• Principal Investigator: SATO Yoko Miyazaki University, Faculty of Education and Culture, Associate Professor, 教育文化学部, 助教授 (50196284)
• Project Period (FY): 1998 – 1999
• Keywords: young children / learning disabilities / social adjustment / off-task behavior / social isolation / social skills training / social information processing / attention training

Research Abstract

1.Abstraction and categorization of learning disabled children
(l) The present study abstracted LD-suspected children by PRS(a screening test) and the LD Checklist(Ueno et. Al., 1984) from the population of 1360 oldest age classes of 47 kindergartens and nursery schools. These children were tested individually with WISC-R. As a result, 55 children (4.04%) were identified to have learning disabilities. 4 of them were verbal, 37 nonverbal, 14 unclassifiable LD
2.Assessments of LD children's social adaptations and social skills
(1)The SSRS-J(Social Skills Rating System-Japanese Version) showed that the LD children have less adaptive social skills and more problematic behaviors than non LD children. In class situations, the LD children showed more off-task behaviors and aggressive-disruptive behaviors than non LD group. In free play situations, the LD children spent more time in isolated behavior and less in cooperative play.
(2) The LD children were less accepted by their peers than non LD children.
(3)The LD children tended to interpret the other children's intentions and produce less solutions to interpersonal problems than non LDs.
3.Comparisons of the effectiveness of training methods to learning disabled children
(1) To improve LD children's social adaptations, the present study designed three groups, the attention training, the social skills training, and the no training control group, and compared their effectiveness.
(2) The results showed that the attention training obtained much improvements in off-task behaviors, social participation in free play sessions, and broad range of adaptive social skills. But the peer acceptance was not improved for this group.
(3) The SST group showed an improvement in peer acceptance but not so much in social participation in free play or SSRS-J scores.