How do students with disabilities benefit socially from their involvement in peer support interventions?

Meaningful social relationships play a critical role in adolescent development. Recent research has documented the important contributions that peer support interventions, such as peer buddy programs, can make to improving students’ interactions and friendships with their classmates.

Carter, E. W., Cushing, L. S., Clark, N. M., & Kennedy, C. H. (in press). Effects of peer support interventions on students’ access to the general curriculum and social interactions. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities.

Carter, E. W., Hughes, C., Guth, C., & Copeland, S. R. (in press). Factors influencing social interaction among high school students with intellectual disabilities and their general education peers. American Journal on Mental Retardation.

Causton-Theoharis, J. N., & Malmgren, K. W. (in press). Increasing interactions between students with severe disabilities and their peers via paraprofessional training. Exceptional Children.

Garrison-Harrell, L., Kamps, D, & Kravits, T. (1997). The effects of peer networks on social-communicative behaviors for students with autism. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 12, 241-254.

Haring, T. G., & Breen, C. G. (1992). A peer-mediated social network intervention to enhance the social integration of persons with moderate and severe disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 25, 319-333.

Hughes, C., Carter, E. W., Hughes, T., Bradford, E., & Copeland, S. R. (2002). Effects of instructional versus non-instructional roles on the social interaction of high school students. Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 37, 146-162.

Kennedy, C. H., Cushing, L. S., & Itkonen, T. (1997). General education participation improves the social contacts and friendship networks of students with severe disabilities. Journal of Behavioral Education, 7, 167-189.

Kennedy, C. H., & Itkonen, T. (1994). Some effects of regular class participation on the social contacts and social networks of high school students with severe disabilities. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 19, 1-10.

Shukla, S., Kennedy, C. H., & Cushing, L. S. (1998). Component analysis of peer support strategies: Adult influence on the participation of peers without disabilities. Journal of Behavioral Education, 8, 397-413.

Shukla, S., Kennedy, C. H., & Cushing, L. S. (1999). Intermediate school students with severe disabilities: Supporting their social participation in general education classrooms. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 1, 130-140.

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