Social milieu of a residential treatment center for severely or profoundly handicapped young children.

Severely or profoundly handicapped young children who lived in a residential treatment center were subjects in a modified time-sampled observation study of social behavior, state, and physical context. The study was conducted for 3 successive years. Although system-level changes in the ecology of the institution over the 3 years did not appear to affect the social-interaction indices, the developmental ages of the children were positively related to social opportunities and social behavior.