Three cases illustrations:

Ray Relationships. Ray and I are friends because we liked most of the things that other one liked to do, like, I I like to kick a ball and he likes to kick a ball. I like to be with him and he likes to be with me. I like to see him and he likes to see him. He likes to go on the slide and so do I. He likes to walk and I like to walk. He likes to look at pictures and I like to look t pictures too. He likes to think and I like to think. (Typically developing fourth-grade classmate of Rays) Two significant findings emerged from our data with regard to Rays relationships with other children. First, Rays typically developing peers became accustomed to Rays. Unique behaviors (self-stimulating, humming, wandering around the classroom in circles). His presence became comfortable in his presence. Second, by his third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade years, Ray was more attentive and responsive to his typically developing classmates and their social initiation. These peer interactions were often the contexts in which Ray demonstrated his clearest communicative behaviors, and his peers were often able to interpret his attempts at communication more effectively than adults. Ray had a system of buddies who helped him and spent time with him during arrival, recess, lunch, and some academic periods. There were also three typically developing girls who became particularly connected to Ray, taking a nurturing, helping role with him. While many of these peer supports were initially nurtured by Rays teachers, Rays peer soon took responsibility and initiative for these interactions with Ray. Membership. The teaching assistant, Ray and three typically developing girls from Rays class chat in the cafeteria while they eat. At one point they discuss how many years they have been in class with certain people. Susan says, Ive been with Ray for 3 years. Ray smiles, and Susan continues, And next year it will be

4 years, at least I hope youll still go here next year, Ray. Allison adds, Yeah, because you have lots of people who like you and who care about you here. Observation from Rays fourth-grade class. We found many indications of Rays membership in his classes and school. During fourth grade, Ray was recognized in the school newsletter for his contribution to the recycling effort. Ray was often included in small groups where his participation was supported by his peers. Rays teachers, teaching assistants, and classmates considered Ray as a member of their class and school, and they missed him when he was absent or too sleepy to participate because of seizures. While his peer worried about Rays health and seizures, they also encouraged Ray to do well and they took pride in his accomplishments. Skills. Rays growth in skills was variable and often related to his rate of seizure activity. Over the course of our observations, he learned to sit quietly and participate in variety of large group activities. He learned to enjoy being read to, and nondisabled peers would often initiate this activity with him. While Ray relied on adult support for many of his self-help skills, he learned how to make his way through routine and schedule of the school day. He also learned several school jobs such as recycling, sweeping, loading the pop machine ad delivering school mail. He usually completed these tasks with the support of typically developing classmate. Carrie: Relationships. I think one of the things I see right now is Carries ability to have true friends. Im talking about kids who call her on the phone and invite her to their house. That has happened more and more this year. (Carries sixth grade teacher)

For Carrie, interaction with her typically developing classmates have been her greatest source of support and joy. We observed her peers helping her with academic work, making accommodations to include her activities, and giving her feedback about her social behaviors. Carrie also developed several lasting over the 4 years of our research. In fourth grade, she was a peer tutor for a first-grade class, and in seventh grade, she helped another child with disabilities at the junior high school on informal basis. Confictual interactions with peers have been an ongoing issue for Carrie, but in this area Carrie made perhaps her greatest improvement. Her peers learned to communicate with her about their feelings regarding these behaviors and Carrie, who very much wants to be liked by her peers, has responded to their feedback. Carrie showed growth and improvement in all skill outcome areas during her participations in our research. In fourth grade, Carries teacher reported that she exhibited more appropriate social skills with her peers and that she was making verbal requests to adults more frequently. In fifth and sixth grades, Carrie showed academic improvement in math, reading, writing, and computer use. In functional skills, Carrie became more responsible and independent, both at home and at school. Carries mother and sixth-grade teacher also reported that Carrie made remarkable growth in her communication skills. Her articulation was greatly improved and she was talking louder and more frequently to peers and adults.

Relationships and learning

These vignettes about Ray, Carrie, and Cole show how central the social relationships of each of these students lives are to their learning. Their opportunity to interact with their nondisabled classmates is one of the strongest motivations to participate in classroom activities. Teachers for each of these students comment on how other children understand their communicative attempts, make accommodations to enable their participation in activities, and give them helpful prompts and feedback about their behavior. One day we observed an interaction between Cole and two of his friends that brings many of these issues into focus.

While some might see this interaction as a bit unruly, and perhaps even counterproductive to the lesson being presented, we see it as a rich example of how typical classroom life is planted with opportunities for learning for students like Cole. First, it is clear that Cole is highly motivated to interact with his buddies. His communication attempts are, in fact, richly rewarded with their attention and laughter. In addition, one student takes an active role in teaching Cole to pay attention to what the teacher is saying and to what is happening in the group activity. In the following section, we use our conceptual framework too suggest a variety of curriculum goals related to social relationships, as well as intervention strategies for addressing them. In making these recommendations, we depart intentionally from the traditional curriculum emphasis on acquisition and generalization of specific skills in favor of a more holistic view of student learning and development in which outcomes are conceptualized in terms of increased student participation in valued roles, activities, and setting. This approach recalls early insights about the value of partial participation proposed by Diane Baumgart and her colleagues. We further develop the notion of participation here by placing it in the context of contemporary

theories of situated learning, as well as our own observations of student development in the context of inclusive schools. Our assumption, supported by the specific skills in the context of engaging in meaningful activities in which their participation is supported by other children, teachers, and other adults.

Strategies for Intervention Our suggestions for intervention strategies related to social relationships are based on three sources. First. Recommendations are based on what we have observed in studying students with severed in studying students with severe disabilities in inclusive classrooms over the past 4 years. Second, our observations are based on sociocultural theories of human development that we found of enormous value in making sense of what we observed. These views place the process of joint activity, or participation, at the centre of the developmental process. Development is thus seen as a process of mutual change and adaption rather than as a process of mutual change and adaption. Rather than as a process that takes place exclusively within the learner. The third source of influence consists of feedback from teach-ers, special educators, and parents about what is really workable in the context of typical practice. Designing Usable interventions After a serious of meetings with constituent groups school-based teacher teams, and groups of adoles-cents attending inclusive schools, Meyer et al. developed a list of guidelines for intervening in the social lives of children with disabilities. They suggest that interventions should be: 1. Doable in context. Interventions must be based n an understanding of the average classroom and what are practical and reasonable ex[ectatopms.

2. Feasible with available resources. A careful analy-sis of longterm available resources should pre-cede the implementation of an intervention. 3. Sustainable over time. Time for sharing ideas and expertise is essential for sustaining the life and quality of an intervention. 4. Constituency owned and operated. For interventions to be created, facilitated, and supported by the ones carrying them out makes a large difference In how and for how long they are carried out. 5. Culturally inclusive interventions must be consistent with and respectful of the values behavioours and beliefs of the ones implementing and receiving them. 6. Intuitively appealing does the interventions make good common sense? Is it appealing to the recipients and the ones carrying it out? One approach to developing intervention strategies that reflects many of these guidelines is to identify practice that teachers, specialists and others have found successful within inclusive classroom. In the context of our follow along research, we have had the opportunity to observe and record a variety of classroom practice that were associated with positive outcomes for children with and without disabilities. Although these practices have not been subjected to rigorous experimental analysis, they are perhaps best considered as a source of ideas that classroom teachers, special educators, and others may find of value in developing their own solutions to the ongoing and dynamic issues and problems of planning effective interventions. Although we organize our observations about classroom practice below in terms of specific themes and sub-themes within our conceptual framework, Many of the

most promising things we have observed teachers doing are likely to have an effect on all three of the outcome domains.

Recognize and supporting a range of relationships

Social relationships between students with sever disabilities and their peers take a wild variety of forms. In analyzing our follow-along data, we identified four major types of peer relationships that were evident in the lives of the students we studied: 1) Play/companionship 2) Helpee 3) Helper, and 4) conflictual. Each of these types of relationships offer someone different