Kindness Makes a Difference: Assessing the Efficacy of Addy & Uno, an Off-Broadway Musical, and the Realabilities Educational Comic Book Series Curriculum in Enhancing Children's Kindness, Empathy, and Interest in Their Peers With Disabilities and Mental Health Disorders

Children and Disabilities

Recent statistics suggest that from 2013-2014, 95% of all children and youth between the ages of 6 and 21, who were accommodated by IDEA, were enrolled in typical schools (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). Moreover, the number of students who spent the lion’s share of their school day (80% or more time) in regular education classrooms increased from 33% from 1990-1991 to 62% from 2013-2014 (NCES, 2016). This significant rise in just over a decade, suggests that regular education schools will need to be increasingly well-equipped to accommodate students with disabilities in the typical classroom. Research suggests that simply including children with disabilities in the classroom does not ensure that typical children will increase their interest, positive attitudes, intentions and socialization with individuals with disabilities. In contrast, high quality interventions that effectively educate typical children about disabilities and encourage children to befriend individuals with disabilities are critical towards fostering attitudes, intentions and promoting the socialization of typical children toward their peers with disabilities (Silton, 2015; Vignes et al., 2009). Moreover, if programs are not created to promote acceptance and social integration, then children with disabilities will be less accepted by their typically developing peers in the classroom (Favazza, Phillepson, & Kumar, 2000). Research consistently reveals that students with disabilities are not only more vulnerable to negative attitudes (Nowicki & Sandieson, 2002), but are less accepted, have fewer peers, socialize less frequently, and report more loneliness than their typical peers (Bossaert, Colpin, Pijl & Petry, 2011). Various research studies note the importance of establishing learning standards which focus on the development of social skills and social competence skills, rather than focusing exclusively on the acquisition of academic competencies like literacy and mathematics (Scott, Little, Kagan & Freelow, 2006; National Research Council, 2001) in the classroom. Asher and Coie (1990) reveal that peer interactions are key ingredients towards developing social skills during childhood.

Already by preschool, children can form and enhance their repertoire of peer-related social skills (Odom et al., 2006). Unfortunately, even in high quality inclusion programs, children with disabilities appear less likely to get selected when children’s play partner preferences are not predetermined by the instructors’ planned activities or by the program structure (Guralnick, 1999). This aligns closely with research suggesting that typical children are more likely to select a typical doll as a play partner than a doll with a disability (Odom et al., 2006). Since preschool-aged children are already capable of identifying a child with a physical disability compared to a typically-developing peer (Diamond, 1994) and since children’s experiences in preschool are likely to inform their reasoning about inclusion (Diamond & Stacey, 2000), it is critical that interventions enhance children’s attitudes, intentions and knowledge of disabilities as early and as effectively as possible.