A Comparison of Social Skills in Turkish Children with Visual Impairments and Typically Developing Children

The purpose of this study was to compare the social skills of children with visual impairments between the ages of 7 to 12 and typically developing children and to examine children’s social skill differences across their age, gender, and educational settings. The study group consisted of 100 participants attending National Ministry of Education elementary schools located in Istanbul during the academic year of 2009-2010. Study data were gathered using the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS-Teacher report)-Turkish form. Findings from the study showed that typically developing children display higher levels of social skills when compared to children with visual impairments. In addition, study results indicated that social skills of children with visual impairments attending inclusive education settings were higher than children with visually impairments attending schools for blinds. The findings of this study were discussed and suggestions for practice were provided.