Teachers’ Approaches to Facilitating Positive Peer Relationships for Students with Disabilities

Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6, Canada

^* Corresponding author: sici.li@mail.utoronto.ca

Abstract

The development of social openness enables the educational needs of people with disabilities and their right to equal education to be progressively emphasized. More and more students with disabilities started to study in the same class as typically developed students. However, how to help them develop and maintain a positive relationship with peers can be challenging for educators since there exist certain challenges between them in becoming friends. In that case, this paper based on the environment of inclusive education briefly analyzed the benefits of inclusive education and figured out the potential challenges that children with disabilities can face when getting along with typically developed students in the inclusive classroom from both internal and external perspectives. Based on that, the core research question is to help teachers with different roles in an inclusive classroom to find ways of help students with disabilities maintain a positive relationship with other typically developed children to ensure the right of children with all situations are able to receive the same level of education, enjoy the same friendship and help them better adapt into the society in the future life. The meaning of this review is practical which provides educators with approaches to helping children with disabilities and leads to further thinking for researchers about other strategies to help them and offer them a growing-up environment as comfortable as typically developed students. Future research is expected to focus more on the development, well-being and rights of children with disabilities.