Three frequently used procedures for analyzing developmental outcomes (developmental age, developmental quotient, and prediction indices) were compared using data from an early intervention program for 29 handicapped children (birth to age three). The procedures led to different conclusions regarding program effectiveness. Alternative measures of…

Emphasizes that foster parent recruiting is becoming increasingly difficult. Describes a successful alternative foster parent recruitment effort which includes the provision of fiscal incentives for foster parent recruiters. (Author/RWB)

Several issues have arisen from evaluations of inservice education programs in British Columbia: why evaluate and whom to survey; how can much emerge from evaluations that do not meet even the simplest cannons for effective evaluation; and how will evaluation results be used. Evaluators now need to improve their craft. (DC)

Investigated whether directing mothers to make weekly appointments to visit the neonatal intensive care unit would generalize to increase the frequency of independent maternal visiation and affect maternal perceptions of the infant and infants' length of hospitalization. (Author/RH)

Reviews studies which focused on various aspects of pre-college student science training programs, pointing out that the programs have had impact on such areas as facilitating academic and career opportunities, increasing subject matter competencies, increasing laboratory skills, changing attitudes in a positive direction, and enhancing students'…

This review of child homicide research identifies three methodological issues: (1) the classification of child deaths as homicides is unreliable; (2) child homicides may not represent the endpoint of a continuum of violence from inadequate parenting to death; and (3) child homicides are not frequent enough to measure the impact of child welfare…

The study examining the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral training program with 30 behaviorally disordered adolescents found participating students exhibited fewer aggressive behaviors and demonstrated greater self-control than nonparticipating students. The addition of an incentive for implementing the training strategies did not appear to…

This study evaluated the Columbus (Ohio) Children's Hospital vision stimulation program, involving in-home intervention with 15 visually impaired infants. Comparison with controls indicated benefits of appropriate vision stimulation in increasing the neural foundation for vision and visual-motor function in visually impaired infants. (Author/DB)

Five profoundly hearing-impaired children were taught to speak seven consonant sounds using palatometry which allows learners to see tongue-to-palate contact patterns used in sound production. Results demonstrated that visual articulatory modeling and feedback of linguapalatal contact patterns is an effective means of teaching consonants and…

This study examined effects of group communication treatment on the linguistic and communicative performance of 24 adults with chronic aphasia. Participants received five hours of group communication treatment weekly provided by a speech-language pathologist. Participants had significantly higher scores on communicative and linguistic measures…

Identifies major issues in current research on child sexual-abuse prevention including the effectiveness of assessment methods, potential side-effects of prevention programs, the developmental appropriateness of programs, the differential effectiveness of presenters of prevention materials, parental involvement in sexual-abuse prevention efforts,…

Before schools and districts invest their scarce resources in the products that educational researchers have developed, teachers, administrators, and community members need to become informed consumers of educational research. This article strives to bridge the gap between researchers and practitioners by exploring how to become an informed…

This report examines a Massachusetts pilot program for quarterly benchmark exams in middle-school mathematics, finding that program schools do not show greater gains in student achievement after a year. But that finding might reflect limited data rather than ineffective benchmark assessments. Benchmark assessments are used in many districts…

In 2006, more than 6 million individuals were victimized by violent crimes. Although violence is below levels of the early 1990s, it remains high. The extent of violence and its impact highlight a critical need to develop and implement effective programs to reduce violence and victimization. Communities have initiated a wide range of such…

Findings from a national study of early intervention programs and toy libraries for handicapped children in Australia are summarized. After an introduction to theoretical concerns, chapter 2 reviews the rationale for early intervention and describes research on components of exemplary programs and on evaluation of the effectiveness of early…