Parents' Facilitation of Friendships Between Their Children With a Disability and Friends Without a Disability

This article is concerned with parental facilitation of friendships between children with a disability and peer , without a disability. Previous research on typical chil dren has pointed out that parent facilitation has enables them to establish a more active social life. We use Schaffner and Buswell's facilitation framework (i.e., finding opportunities, making interpretations, and making accommodations) to organize the grounded strategies used by four Hispanic families, all of whom have a son of daughter with a disability who is experiencing a successful friendship with a peer without a disability. Data collection involved 13 semistructured group and individual interviews, with 31 respondents, including parents, children/youth with and without disabilities, teachers, and other family members. Evidence from these interviews shows that the selected families, particularly mothers, have actively facilitated friendships most frequently by finding opportunities (which always involved some level of interpretation and accommodation). They also generally facilitated friendships by exposing their children to a wide range of potential friends, rather than prioritizing a relationship with a specific person. Of the parents of children without a disability, two mothers, who were also service providers for the individuals with disabilities, specifically facilitated a friendship between the individual and their own son or daughter. The discussion highlights key issues for future research.