Stereotypes Concerning Normal and Handicapped Children

Summary

Individuals' attitudes were assessed toward various groups of children. In study 1 the respondents were 65 male and female teachers from across the state of Kansas. In study 2 the respondents were 89 men and women in attendance at the 1978 International Conference of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities. In both studies the evaluations of the labels “gifted children,” “normal children,” and “physically handicapped children” were found to be significantly more positive than the evaluations of the labels “mentally retarded children,” “learning disabled children,” and “emotionally disturbed children.” These results seem to indicate that definite negative stereotypes are held toward the latter three groups of children. In study 1 these findings were found to occur generally regardless of the respondents' sex, age, educational level attained, and amount of previous mainstreaming experience.