The passage of PL 94-142 in 1975 required educational agencies to develop a continuum of placement options allowing children with disabilities to be educated with children who are not handicapped. The acceptance handicapped children receive from normally developing peers appears to be a factor in determining the success of mainstreamed settings. School systems have an ongoing responsibility to educate students about differences since knowledge deficits contribute to negative peer perceptions and greater social distance. / This study has examined changes that occurred when third grade children received one of three instructional programs about children with disabilities and their associated etiologies. A pretest-post test multigroup design was used to measure program effects. Experience, knowledge, and social distance scales were administered. / Puppets presented informational content about blindness, deafness, retardation, cerebral palsy and learning disabilities. A second group was shown a video featuring the same five handicapping conditions. Group three received both the puppets and video. A control group received no planned intervention. / The first hypothesis concerned the effects prior experience with a handicapped person would have on knowledge and social acceptance. With more than 520 Colquitt County, Georgia third grade students participating in the study, experience was not found to have a significant effect on either students' pretreatment knowledge or social distance. Repeated Measures Analyses of Covariance did, however, indicate that third grade girls were more positive than boys about the possibility of having peers with disabilities as potential classmates or friends. / A second and third series of hypotheses postulated expectations about the students' knowledge and social distance following three treatment interventions. Repeated measures ANOVA analyses were used in the comparisons. Gains in both knowledge and social distance were clinically significant for all three treatment methods. Mean knowledge gains were greatest in the group receiving the combined video/puppet treatment, followed by the puppets, then the video. Mean social distance differences were highest for the puppet group, followed by the combination treatment, with the video ranking third. / With all treatment conditions showing significant gains in both knowledge and social acceptance, the implications are that both puppetry and film have potential for reducing children's disability related concerns while instilling more positive perceptions of people with disabilities. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-11, Section: A, page: 3793. / Major Professor: Virginia P. Green. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76792 |
| Contributors | Everett, Helen Anderson., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 189 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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