OBJECTIVE. We examined the sensitivity of the Evaluation of Social Interaction (ESI) as a measure of the overall quality of social interaction in children as they engage in social exchanges in a natural context with typical social partners.

METHOD. We compared the ESI measures of 23 children with disabilities with those of 23 children without disabilities, matched by age and gender.

RESULTS. Paired t-test analysis revealed a statistically significant difference, t(22) = −4.065, p = .001, in the quality of social interaction for the two groups of children, indicating sensitivity of the ESI.

CONCLUSION. The results support the use of the ESI to measure quality of social interaction in a natural context.

Keywords:
child, social interaction, disability
Copyright © 2012 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.
2012
You do not currently have access to this content.