The new Millennium Development Goals (2015) focus on the needs of individuals with disabilities, challenging us to develop strategies to make inclusion in early education a reality for 93 million children with disabilities. Garnering global attention, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) calls upon nations to promote a sense of dignity, combat stereotypes and raise awareness about persons with disabilities by “including all children from an early age, fostering an attitude of respect for persons with disabilities” (UN, 2006). In this session, U.S. researchers will highlight key findings from a study on Making Friends (Favazza, Ostrosky, & Mouzourou, 2016), a program that fosters understanding and acceptance of young children with disabilities. The program is theoretically grounded with research-based strategies that promote a sense of belonging for all children (McQuinn, 2013; Ostrosky et al., under review). A longitudinal randomized control study was conducted to examine the impact of Making Friends on kindergarten children’s understanding of and attitudes toward peers with disabilities in 32 inclusive classrooms in the US. Across 3 years, 488 typically developing children and 174 children with disabilities from 16 schools participated in this study in two states in the US. Measures included the Acceptance Scale for Kindergarten–Revised (Favazza & Odom, 1996), the Social Skills Improvement System (Gresham & Elliott, 2008) and the Inventory of Disability Representation (IDR) (Favazza & Odom, 1997). Classes were randomly assigned to treatment groups (8 Friends classes, 8 contact control classes). The Friends classes (n=241 children) were exposed to a literacy-based program designed to promote understanding and acceptance of children with disabilities (Favazza, et al., 2016). The contact control group (n=247 children) participated in a literacy-based Science program (French & Conezio, 2007). Pre-post changes in acceptance (Acceptance Scale for Kindergarten–Revised data) were statistically significant across treatment groups, with a significant time by treatment interaction. Children in the Friends classrooms made greater gains than children in Science classrooms. All children made significant improvements in their social skills (Social Skills Improvement System data) while IDR scores revealed extremely limited levels of representation of disabilities in all 32 classrooms. Key findings will be shared along with recommendations for future research. Class-wide programs like Making Friends play a preventative role in keeping attitudes from worsening over time, suggesting that inclusive classrooms may have a negative impact on children’s attitudes without interventions that support acceptance.

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