Early Perceptions of Orthopedic Disability

Two recent studies (Jones and Gottfried, 1965; Jones, Gottfried, and Owens, 1966) have suggested that there is some consistency in responses to exceptional persons in a variety of interpersonal situations, and that the form of these responses in early high school is essentially the same as during early college. In addition, there is some evidence (Richardson, Goodman, Hastorf, and Dornbusch, 1961) indicating that rather consistent preferences for certain physically disabled children exist among ten and eleven year olds, and that these preferences are sometimes related to cultural and cognitive characteristics of the respondents (Richardson, Goodman, Hastorf, and Dornbusch, 1963). It is highly likely that perceptions of exceptionality begin considerably earlier than middle childhood; as Yarrow (1960) noted in summarizing a large body of research on children's attitudes: "The weight of evidence points to the child as a very sensitive perceiver at a very early age" (p. 648). There appear to be no published writings on preschool children's perceptions of exceptional