Interactional behaviors for 15 moderately and severely handicapped elementary and preschool students were observed for approximately 1 month across a variety of settings. Behaviors were classified along a continuum of adaptive behaviors, and their proposed "degree of adaptation" was compared to commonly used definitions of adaptive behavior and scales such as the American Association of Mental Deficiency Adaptive Behavior Scales. Results suggested that constructs such as social competence and social skill may be more closely related to preferred long term goals for these students and that shaping procedures may need to be undertaken to assist with generalization of behaviors to social situations. Results further suggested that level of adaptive behavior may be related to situational content as well as setting requirements and reinforcement. (Author/CL)