Investigates back channel listener responses (i.e. umhums, headnods) in children (7.5 to 11.9 years). Considers such responses to be among the last conversational skills acquired. Reports that back channel responses significantly increased with age, attributable to better understanding of the listener role of providing collaborative feedback. (JAD)

Applied drill and practice intervention in small-group (n=5) setting to improve fifth-grade students' fluency with basic mathematics facts. Cover, Copy, and Compare intervention was modified and implemented with Chapter I mathematics class. Results provide practitioners with ideas about implementing group interventions using drill for mathematics…

Reviews the Intimate Friendship Scale based on 16 studies relevant to children and preadolescents. Presents the conceptual background of the test. Addresses questions regarding the scale and suggests directions for future research. (DR)

Describes investigation systematically comparing influence of naturalistic social behaviors and nonbehavioral variables, measured by live observations, on development of peer status in unfamiliar boys attending summer research program. Participants included attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and comparison boys. Discusses implications for…

Gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) were related to career aspirations of 8- to 11-year olds (n=80). Grade, ability, and achievement levels were not related. African Americans had higher aspirations; 60% of males chose jobs requiring only high school, 74% of females chose jobs requiring college education. (SK)

Examined usefulness of independent group contingency system for decreasing inappropriate behaviors. Twenty-five fourth graders in regular classrooms participated in intervention, which involved public posting system using positive reinforcement for desired behaviors. Targeted behaviors showed marked decreases across eight-week treatment period and…

Examined the relations among strategy knowledge about making friends, prosocial and antisocial behavior, and peer acceptance at school in a sample of 423 sixth and seventh graders. Findings indicated that knowledge of both appropriate and inappropriate strategies for making friends was related to both types of social behavior and to peer…

Applied Snyder and Feldman's consolidation/transition model to Selman's stages of friendship reasoning in a study of stage change in young adolescents. Hypothesized that subjects exhibiting reasoning about their own modal stages would more likely experience a developmental advance in modal reasoning. This was confirmed; however, the amount of…

Cites the need for further research on adolescent sexual practices, motivational issues, and the meaning of sexuality during adolescence. Urges the implementation of preventive intervention programs designed to influence the health-related behaviors of adolescents. (BC)

A study compared three subject groups structured for competition to three subject groups structured for cooperation. Thirty-six 8- to 17-year-old males residing in a treatment center for nonpsychotic psychosocial disorders participated in competitive and cooperative dice games. Results did not support the hypothesis that a cooperative experience…

This case study describes a 12-year-old boy with autism in association with the folate-sensitive fragile site fra(2)(q13). Cytogenetic results of blood analysis are described, and two possibilities are discussed: the fragile site may be a coincidental finding unrelated to the autism, or may represent an area of potential gene damage. (JDD)

Examined hypothesis that adolescent problems are positively associated with overt and covert forms of parental conflict. Compared observed marital interactions in families of adolescents with problems to those in families of adolescents without problems. Findings suggest that both overt parental conflict and some forms of covert conflict play…

Examined proportion of school-identified learning-disabled students who scored in impaired range on Halstead Reitan Neuropsychological Battery for Children over 20-year period. Found difference in findings for periods before and after passage of federal legislation; proportion of learning-disabled students who scored in impaired range was…

Administered 1930s version of Pintner General Ability Tests: Verbal Series to 138 fifth grade students. Compared to scores from current intelligence and achievement tests, Pintner means were similar. Correlations of Pintner with other tests were of same order as those typically reported among contemporary measures. Item difficulty appeared similar…

Examined relationships among experimental tasks to measure planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive (PASS) cognitive processing following from Luria's theoretical model. Compared PASS model with null, memory-reasoning, verbal-nonverbal, and verbal-spatial-speed models. Results from students in grades K-2 (n=75) and 5-12 (n=132) indicated…