Social and deviant behavior of nonhandicapped peer tutors in an integrated early education setting

Part of the rationale for Integrating young handicapped children into regular early education settings is that nonhandicapped children will benefit in various ways from interaction with handicapped children. In the integration process, nonhandicapped children often serve as formal participants by acting as models, tutors, or agents of reinforcement in the educational programming for handicapped children. In the present study, the social behaviors of the peer tutors and a group of control peers were examined prior to and during the enrollment of handicapped children in an early education setting. Eight peer tutors participated in formal small group activities with a handicapped child on a daily basis for 8 months. Four control peers interacted informally with the handicapped child. Videotapes of the children's behavior over the 8-month period were scored for prosocial and deviant behavior. The spontaneous social behavior of preschool children was not affected, either positively or negatively, by their participation in integrated activities with a severely handicapped child. None of the positive or negative effects of the integrated programming predicted by other researchers were observed.