Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

After doing some research online for this week’s blog assignment, I found a great example of research involving children with a very positive outcome! The article that came across, Promoting Social Behavior of Young Children in Group Settings: A Summary of Research (Dunlap and Powell 2009), explains the positive effects of preparing typically developing children to interact with “Focus Children”-children with social and emotional behavior problems. In this experiment, the typically functioning child was coached by the teacher on how to how to initiate interactions with the focus child, what to say and how to say it. Dozens of studies, including this one, with children described as exhibiting behavior and conduct disorders and autistic have demonstrated that this basic approach can be effective in increasing social responses by the focus children and also in promoting the focus chil­dren’s initiations with other child interactions (e.g., Odom et al., 1999; Ragland, Kerr, & Strain, 1978; Strain, Shores, & Timm, 1977; Strain, Schwartz, & Bovey, 2008).

In my opinion this is an ethical way to conduct research with young children. No one is harmed and in fact both parties involved learn and gain skills from the research experiment.

I understand that inclusion and equality is important among all children, despite their differences. But, the truth is that throwing children social and behavioral issues into a room together and hoping that everyone plays together happily is not a reality. It actually does an injustice to both parties. The typically functioning children may be afraid to interact with the focus child for fear of upsetting the child. The focus child will have difficulty improving social skills if never given the chance to have peer interactions.

Giving children skills to work with peers who may interact differently than they do, will help teach them to be compassionate and caring.

This was a great article and I encourage my classmates to read it if they have a chance http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/do/resources/documents/roadmap_3.pdf

 

References

Dunlap & Powell 2009. Promoting Social Behavior of Young Children in Group Settings: Summary of Research, Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children, Retrieved from: http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/do/resources/documents/roadmap_3.pdf