A SOCIOMETRIC STUDY OF LEARNING DISABILITY CHILDREN AND TYPE OF TEACHING STRATEGY

Abstract

Several studies (Gottlieb & Budoff, 1973; Goodman & Gottlieb, 1972; Baldwin, 1958; Johnson, 1950) have reported that educable mentally retarded students in regular academic classrooms are significantly less accepted and more rejected than their normal peers. Bryan (1974) has noted similar findings for learning disabled students. The present study reports the sociometric status of learning disability students who are enrolled in classrooms with an almost equal balance between the number of learning disabled (LD) students and the number of non-learning disabled (NLD) students. In addition, the sociometric status of LD students is compared in three different instructional models. The questions posed by the study are: (a) Do LD children choose NLD children significantly more often than NLD children choose LD children on acceptance questions, regardless of the instructional strategy? (b) On rejection questions, do NLD children reject LD children significantly more often than LD children reject NLD children, regardless of instructional strategy?