The development of listener‐adapted communication in physically handicapped children: A cross‐sectional study

This study investigated the impact of a handicap and the effect of mainstreaming on listener‐adapted communication over a two‐year period. The results suggested that handicapped children are deficient in adaptation, but mainstreaming helps overcome this deficiency. Mainstreaming helps more in the second year, and more with increasing age. The mainstreamed, handicapped children, however, still do not reach the level of performance of their nonhandicapped peers.

Notes

Ms. Thompson is Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Delaware, Newark 19711.

This research was funded by a grant from the Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped, Department of Education. The author would like to thank Art Bochner for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.