How Young Children Evaluate People With and Without Disabilities

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Cognition

Background:

• Early childhood evaluations of individuals with disabilities are not well understood.
• The impact of social contact on children's attitudes toward disability requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how preschool-age children evaluate people with disabilities.
• To determine if social contact influences children's positivity toward individuals with differences.

Main Methods:

• Typically developing 3- to 5-year-old children completed social preference and action judgment tasks.
• Tasks involved evaluating unfamiliar individuals with and without disabilities.
• Children's participation in inclusion programs was assessed.

Main Results:

• Children preferred images of typically developing peers over those in wheelchairs.
• No preference was found for children described with disabilities versus those with negative facts.
• Norm-violating actions were judged more negatively, irrespective of the actor's disability status.
• Inclusion program participation did not significantly alter children's responses.

Conclusions:

• Preschoolers exhibit biases favoring typically developing peers.
• Social contact, as measured by inclusion program participation, did not mitigate these early biases.
• Further research is needed to understand the development of positive social attitudes toward disability in young children.