Vignettes from Sesame Street: Preschooler's Ideas about Children with Down Syndrome and Physical Disability

The results of previous research suggest that while preschool children have a beginning understanding of disabilities that involve the use of adaptive equipment, they have little awareness of disabilities such as Down syndrome which have less overt distinguishing characteristics. In this study, videotaped segments from the children's television show, Sesame Street, were used to explore children's ideas about Down syndrome and physical disability. Participants included 41 preschool children. While a majority of participating children were aware that each child in the videotapes had some difficulties performing age-appropriate tasks, children had significantly fewer ideas about why the child with Down syndrome had this difficulty. Significantly more thought that the child with Down syndrome could do more "if he tried really hard" when compared with the child with a physical disability. These results are discussed in terms of children's developing understanding of disabilities and implications for using media to teach preschoolers about people with disabilities.