Peer-related social interactions of developmentally delayed young children: Development and characteristics.

Conducted a short-term longitudinal study of the peer-related social interactions of 111 developmentally delayed toddler and preschool age children. Initial analyses centered on 2 groups: one composed of younger and more severely delayed children (aged 1.8–6.6 yrs) and the other consisting of older and more mildly delayed children (aged 2.4–6.8 yrs). Observers coded a wide range of social and play behaviors during free-play interactions in individual classrooms, including ratings of social participation, constructiveness of play, and teacher behavior, as well as a series of sequential interactive measures. Similarities to normally developing children in the organization and developmental progression of peer interactions across the short term were noted for each of the groups. However, comparisons to normative expectations for preschool age children in relation to Ss' cognitive levels and cross-sectional analyses across CA suggested the existence of unusually marked deficits in peer interactions. These deficits may simply be a manifestation of a more basic and generalized social interaction deficit, or they may be related to the cognitive level-expressive language discrepancy characteristic of such children, or they may be due to the fact that such children are usually surrounded by other children with substantial deficits. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)