Educators today are challenged with the task of designing curricula and standards for students of varying abilities. While technology and innovation steadily improve classroom learning, teachers and administrators continue to struggle in developing the best methodologies and practices for students with disabilities. "Models for Effective…

The focus of this volume is to identify and review issues and outcomes associated with behavioral concerns of students with learning and behavioral disabilities. Students must navigate a number of environmental conditions, task demands, and social interactions with peers and adults throughout the school day. To be successful, they must employ a…

Transition from secondary education to adulthood represents a period during which adolescents with disabilities face multiple responsibilities and changing roles that include establishing independence, attending postsecondary education or training, developing social networks, choosing a career, participating in their communities, and managing…

The needs of students with profound and multiple disabilities (PMD) have received more attention in the educational research and best practice literature over the past decade, especially in relation to the importance of maximising their social and communicative engagement. However, perhaps as a function of their low incidence rate and resultant…

The authors of an earlier article, which argued that the social skills deficits typically found in children with learning disabilities (LD) are largely due to the comorbidity of LD with psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depressive disorder, respond to a critique that did not find this relationship…

This study sought to differentiate pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS) from similar nonautistic disorders on the basis of a cognitive deficit, theory of mind (ToM), which is the ability to infer mental states in others, a deficit highly prevalent in autism, a disorder similar to PDDNOS. Results suggest that children…

Responds to Miguel, Forness, and Kavale, who argued that the social skills deficits typically found in children with learning disabilities are largely due to the comorbidity of learning disabilities with psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depressive disorder. This review finds this relationship for LD…

Many teachers have negative attitudes towards mainstreaming handicapped students. This study examines an intervention teaching method and teachers' attitudes. Results indicate that regardless of treatment, student teachers' attitudes will change in the direction of their classroom teachers' attitude. (JS)

The study compared the attention-directing behaviors of 15 autistic children, 14 children with developmental language delay, and 13 young normal children. Although the autistic children's behavior was most unlike that of the other groups, autistic children did not produce more attention-directing behavior when a high degree of adult direction was…

This study examined the conversational engagement techniques employed by children with and without learning disabilities in dyadic interactions. Analysis indicated that the 60 learning-disabled subjects (9-13 years old) employed engagement-related techniques as sophisticated as those of their nondisabled peers, though they did so less consistently…

Current conceptual and empirical advances in appreciation of normal patterns of friendship development are reviewed and integrated for insight into the meaning of social competence for young special needs children. Questions are posed for researchers as well as for practitioners seeking to enhance the social effectiveness of special needs…

This study examined cognitive correlates of social perception in 32 learning-disabled elementary students. Three subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity were used as measures. Subtests for Picture Arrangement and Comprehension seemed to have an inherent relation to social perceptual…

Evaluation of integrated versus segregated schooling of 91 children with severe developmental disabilities found that integrated children spent less time with therapists, equal time with special education teachers, more time with other children, and less time alone. No differences were found on developmental skills; however, integrated children…

Fifteen author-contributed papers focus on the learning disabled adolescent and young adult. The first section provides a general overview while subsequent sections address educational and social techniques, steps to employment, and programs for adolescents. The following titles and authors are included: "Prevention: Primary, Secondary, or…

Aspects of a child's social environment, in this case those connected with networks and dyadic interaction, are influenced by different maternal and child characteristics. The young child's social network is influenced by at-risk status but not by chronological age. Not only do families with handicapped infants receive more support from formal…