Susan A. Fowler, Michaelene M. Ostrisky and Seon Yeong Yu wrote an article called “Children’s friendship development; a comparative study” in the spring of 2011. They set out to “increase our understanding of how parents facilitate their children’s friendships” by “exploring the support strategies that parents use to assist their children in developing peer relationships and friendships.” Their main objectives were to seek answers to three questions. The first question is what are some of the characteristics of a preschooler’s friendships and are they different between children with and children without disabilities or developmental delays? Secondly, what strategies are parents using to support their children’s friendship development, and do they differ between parents of children with and without disabilities or developmental delays? Finally, what characteristics influence their friendships, and so these differ between children with and without developmental delays? An eight page survey was developed by the authors and passed out to about 100 preschoolers to give their mothers. The primary target for this study was for mothers of preschoolers between the ages of 3 and 6, from five classes in two public preschool programs in Illinois. The survey inquired about the child’s information and social networks as well as the mother’s help and strategies in friendships and family information. Participants were originally chosen based on the order the packets came back. The researcher’s goal was to match children without any developmental delays along with those that had a disability or developmental delay. The teachers received 34 completed surveys and were then directed to select a few more children that had normal development and were of a certain ethnicity. In all, twenty of the chosen participants were mothers of typical developing children and the other 20 participants were mothers of preschoolers with developmental delays or an identifiable disability. The researcher furthered the matching process by aligning them by certain demographics. Each matched pair was coupled by having two of the demographics in common. The specific demographics included ethnicity, age, marital status, education level and family income. From the surveys, the information concluded that the two groups of children were very similar to each other in their relationships with other children. Most all of the preschoolers had several play mates and about half of them had one very good friend. Also, parents of both groups reported that their children did not play with others that had delays, and listed their home as the most used place for play dates. One of the differences between the two groups was those with a disability or delay had more play dates than those who had normal development. Another measurable difference was that the children that had normal development mostly played with other children that were the same age or older. Those with developmental disabilities would play with others younger than themselves. Both groups of mothers used similar strategies to help and assist in their children’s friendship growth and included their child’s brother and sister in the play dates. The only difference between the two sets of mothers was whether or not the mothers were an active part of the playtime. Mothers of those with delays spent 30% more time during the play date interacting with the children than those who had normal developing children. There was a difference between the children with a disability or delay. Eleven of the twenty preschoolers were only in speech and language therapy. The other 9 were in more than one type of therapy. Mothers of the children that were in more than one type of therapy reported that they had to help the other children understand what their child was saying more often than those who were only in one type of therapy. Looking past disabilities and developmental delays there were measurable differences that were in correlation to family life. The children that were in one child homes had more play dates than those who had siblings. Also, the research found that Caucasian mothers joined more in play during the child’s play date than African American or Asian mothers. Children with mothers over 30, a family income over $25,000, and/or a degree had less play dates than those of the opposite. When reading the title of this article, I expected a completely different kind of study. I was a bit disappointed with what the study entailed. The title was generic, and I believe that it could have given me more information about the study in few words. They did give a great background on how preschool friendships are important for many aspects of childhood development. They stated that friendships “create valuable context to learn and practice skills essential to children’s social, cognitive, communicative and emotional development.” The authors also pulled other viable information from other research studies to give further background knowledge and importance of peer relationships among those with and without disabilities. The thesis statement was very clear and easy to find. The hypothesis however, was impossible to locate. There were 3 questions that they set out to answer, but no predictions or theories that they expected to find. The greatest strength of this article was highlighting the weaknesses and limitations of the study. They pointed out that the information given was by a parent filling out a survey instead of an interview or observation. Also, there was no way to measure the depth of the children’s relationship with their playmates. Most importantly, the research only sampled a small group, in a specific area. This information could not be the norm for most preschoolers. Along with the highlighting of weaknesses, they provided several areas in which further research is needed, such as to “explore associations between parent’s social networks and children’s friendship development.” The authors were very detailed in the data provided. All of the questions that were asked on the survey came from previous studies done by other researchers. The authors included each one of the questions and what study they came from. Overall, the authors did well in creating the article. This study itself provided little insight into the friendship development of a child, and as I previously pointed out, the title does not match the article. The findings of the study provided very little new findings but the authors did the best with what they had. Theories and research studies are meant to be built upon. The authors did a respectful job in illustrating what research has been completed and what research needs to be improved on. References
Fowler, S.A., Ostrosky, M.M., & Yu, S.Y. (2011) Children’s friendship development: a comparative study, Early Child Research & Practice, 13.1, 16. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7 CA260874254&v=2.1&u=vic_liberty&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&authCount=1