Social perception of the development of disabled children.
BACKGROUND
This experiment extends our study of perception of the disabled from the realm of personality into child development to determine if our results, which reveal prejudice against disabled adults, apply to perceptions of a toddler's development.


METHODS
Participants watched a video of either a disabled or a non-disabled toddler in sessions conducted by either a disabled or a non-disabled experimenter. Participants rated the target using the Achenbach Caregiver-Teacher Report Form for ages 1.5-5 years twice: first, each participant imagined being the caregiver of the toddler at age 4 years (self-rating), and then the participant envisioned how a typical childcare provider would rate the target (other-rating).


RESULTS
Data revealed an interaction between the experimenter's disability and the source of ratings. For the disabled experimenter, participants thought that "others" would perceive more behavioural problems than they themselves do. For the non-disabled experimenter, participants rated the disabled target more pessimistically in both the self- and other-ratings.


CONCLUSIONS
As we found in our first study of disabled adults, our current results reveal subtle prejudice against disabled children.
Castañeto
M V
MV
Department of Psychology, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA.
Willemsen
E W
EW
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012938:Social Perception