A Comparison of Social Life among 11-Year-Old Disabled Children and 11-Year-Olds in General

Abstract

As children approach their teenage years peer relations start to play a more significant role in their social lives. Parents and family are still central, but the arena of peer contact increasingly becomes the place where they develop their social networks and their social identity. Many disabled children are placed in mainstream schools so that they can take part in social life with other children. Thus, disabled children of this age are inescapably caught up in the changing social landscape of the mainstream environment, and it is important to look at their ability to cope with these changes.