Acceptance or rejection? The social experiences of children with special educational needs and disabilities within a mainstream primary school

ABSTRACT

This article details a study which investigated the social acceptance and friendships of children with SEND, and their typically developing peers, at a mainstream primary school in the North West of England. Participants were 29 children aged five and six years old, separated into three groups; typically developing children, children who were being monitored for SEND, and children with formally identified SENDs. With the use of a peer nomination sociometric technique, findings revealed that children with SEND had less promising peer relations and friendships compared to children tracked for SEND and their typically developing peers, consequently questioning the mainstream ‘ideal’.

KEYWORDS:

• Special educational needs
• mainstream
• social acceptance
• peer relationships
• inclusion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Karen E. Broomhead http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1977-0246