TEACHERS' RESPONSES TO SEVERELY MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN'S INITIATIONS IN THE CLASSROOM

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Abstract
SUMMARY: This study investigates teachers' responses to initiations of interaction by severely mentally handicapped children who were rated as extremely excitable or inhibitable. The teachers' responses were categorised according to whether they maintained the interaction, expanded the ideational content of the child's initiation, and whether they did so verbally or non‐verbally. Results showed that teachers maintained significantly less initiations than they non‐maintained. Furthermore, the type of response given by the teachers was related to the child's being excitable or inhibitable as well as to the teacher's own personality as measured by the Eysenck Personality Inventory.