Information is provided on South Carolina's Project SEARCH, which is designed to identify and serve potentially gifted rural African American children in the regular classroom. Nontraditional measures of giftedness, teacher development initiatives, instructional material selection, strengthening collaboration, and problems encountered are…

Negative attitudes toward disabled people are fostered by society's body-beautiful ethic, success orientation, nondisabled guilt, the concept of "spread," and media stereotypes. Strategies for improving camper and staff attitudes toward disabled people include precamp training, social skills training, role playing, a positive camp…

Evaluated the educational, psychological, and medical literature that addressed emotional difficulties and behavioral problems in students. Determined that the lack of consensus on the terms used to describe the problem prevented accurate assessment of its prevalence. Concludes that low-cost, gate-keeping mechanisms are needed to facilitate early…

Examined age and individual differences in racial attitudes among Black Canadian children, and explored how racial cognition might influence the development of in-group pride. Results from 66 children show racial differences increased with age, that constancy and reconciliation were not associated with racial attitudes, and that racially biased…

Narratives of children from different Spanish-speaking backgrounds illustrate that children's atypical narrative performance may reflect individual or cultural differences. It is suggested that static assessments may not differentiate narrative differences from disorders. A dynamic assessment model to predict the child's true language learning…

Four experiments explored adults' and grade school children's beliefs about inheritability of racial identity. Found that older children and adults believed that mixed-race children possessed black racial features. Also found that children from an integrated school, regardless of race, expected mixed-race children to have intermediate racial…

This study of 1,657 children (ages 7-16) found that although children with dyslexia had higher intelligence quotient scores than poor readers, the 2 groups did not differ in performance on reading, spelling, phonological processing, or most language and memory tasks. The performance of both reading-disabled groups was significantly below that of…

This article discusses characteristics of biracial children, identifies pressures facing interracial families, notes societal myths about interracial families, and considers identity development of the biracial child. Fifteen specific teaching strategies for supporting biracial children in school settings are suggested. (DB)

Applies palimpsest as model for recognizing Chicano cultural diversity. Promotes interdisciplinary approach to Chicano studies. Examines Aztlan (Aztec homeland) as historical place and nationalist symbol obscuring Chicano identity and Mesoamerican diversity. Encourages use of palimpsest as conceptual tool for Chicano studies, cultural identity,…

Forty children (ages 9-12) identified as having dyslexia on the basis of intelligence and achievement tests were evaluated. Results imply that a test of phonological sensitivity and another of nonsense word decoding identified children who were dysphonetic. Nondysphonetic disabled readers were older and had higher verbal intelligence quotients…

This study of 640 twins with reading disability and 436 controls (mean age 12) examined external validity of the distinction between specific reading retardation and reading backwardness, in 3 domains: genetic etiology, sex ratio and clinical correlates, and neuropsychological profiles. There was no evidence of differential genetic etiology of the…

Discusses the dualism of literacy and education as an individual possession and communally embedded commodity within many segments of the African-American community, drawing on information from 25 adults. Literacy is an ever-changing continuous activity shaped by cultural and community beliefs about the price of education and rewards of learning.…

Ethnographic assessment is recommended in the language evaluation of Asian-Pacific American students. Procedures are outlined for collecting data representative of the student's repertoire; for determining how cultural, linguistic, and experiential factors affect student behavior; and for taking the perspective of the student as well as that of…

This article describes requirements for developing Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSP) under Part H of the Education of the Handicapped Act. Components of the IFSP document are reviewed and process considerations are discussed. State-level and local-level strategies for implementing family-centered IFSP processes are highlighted. (Author/PB)

Two key concepts in diagnosing learning disabilities ("severe discrepancy" and "process dysfunction") are reviewed, and their relationship to the habilitation of learning is discussed. Guidelines are given for calculating a severe discrepancy, and the evaluation of processing skills is discussed. Strength models of remediation…