The Effects of Inclusive Preschools on the Development of Children with Disabilities: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This study presents the results of the Preschool Inclusion Project investigating the effectsof inclusive preschools on the development ofchildren with disabilities (CWDs) and withoutdisabilities (CWODs) over the two years and determining predictors of the development ofboth groups of children. The participants were 61 pairs of CWDs and CWODs attending53 inclusive preschool classrooms, in Ankara, Turkey. Data were collected on three occasions over two years, with fall and spring measurements with six months apart in the firstyear of the study and then again one year later, in the spring data point of the second year.The results showed that the developmental scores of the CWODs are higher than those ofthe CWDs at all measurement points, and the differences between the developmentalscores of the two groups of children tended to close gradually in the second and thirdmeasurements. We found no significant longitudinal changes in problem behaviors and thestudent-teacher relationships of the CWDs and CWODs over the two years. In addition,the findings from canonical correlation analysis revealed that social skills provided thegreatest contribution to the development of CWDs for the first and second measurementsand the second-highest contribution in the third measurement.