Social Behavior of Young Children With Disabilities

• The Social Skills and Problem Behaviors Scales from the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) (Gresham and Elliott 1990) were included in the PEELS teacher questionnaires in school year 2005-06. The SSRS is a standardized measure with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15 and has separate norms for males and females. The SSRS was standardized by age and gender. High scores on the Social Skills Scale indicate enhanced social skills, whereas high scores on the Problem Behaviors Scale indicate more problem behaviors. The mean scores on the Social Skills Scale were 94.1 for males and 93.1 for females. On the Problem Behaviors Scale, mean scores were 102.9 for males and 103.5 for females. The mean ratings did not differ significantly by gender.
• For all three years of data collection, parents were asked a number of questions about their children's social skills and behavior. Parents' reports changed significantly for some of their children's social skills and behaviors, generally in the direction of improved social skills and fewer behavior problems. The percentage of parents who reported that their children were not at all aggressive increased significantly, from 43 percent in 2003-04 to 52 percent in 2005-06, and the percentage of parents who reported that their children's behavior was age appropriate increased significantly, from 58 percent in 2003-04 to 61 percent in 2005-06.
• The correlation between parents' perceptions and teachers' ratings of their children's social skills was statistically significant for males (r = 0.12) but not for females (r = 0.06). The correlation between parents' perceptions and teachers' ratings on problem behaviors was statistically significant for both males (r = -0.39) and females (r = - 0.52).
• Declassification status was significantly related to children's SSRS scores. The mean scores for males who had an IEP for all 3 years of the study (M = 92.8) were significantly lower on the Social Skills Scale than scores for males who were declassified between 2003-04 and 2004-05 (M = 100.1) and males who were declassified between 2004-05 and 2005-06 (M = 99.6). The mean scores for females who had an IEP all 3 years (M = 91.0) were significantly lower compared to females who were declassified between 2003-04 and 2004-05 (M = 101.5) and females declassified between 2004-05 and 2005-06 (M = 99.9). Males with IEPs for all three years of the study (M = 103.8) had higher scores on the Problem Behaviors Scale (i.e., more problem behaviors) than males who were declassified between 2003-04 and 2004-05 (M = 99.3) and males who were declassified between 2004-05 and 2005-06 (M = 98.8). There were no statistically detectable differences on the Problem Behaviors Scale by declassification status for females.