Considers the experiences of Carrie who is a student teacher with learning disabilities during her first eight week field experience and addresses the problems that resulted because of her learning disabilities and reluctance to tell her cooperating teacher and university supervisor about her disabilities. Addresses the implications of this case…

Kindergarten teachers rated the progress of 303 kindergartners toward six academic objectives. Thirty-eight students who received unsatisfactory ratings were matched to 34 children with satisfactory ratings. Identified children had poorer academic achievement, phonological processes, and working memory, and more behavior problems. Follow-up at…

Describes using behavior maps to help students identify and change nonadaptive patterns of interaction with adults and peers. Strategies are presented for developing and using behavior maps, and three examples of behavior maps of differing complexity are provided. Evaluation of behavior mapping efforts is also discussed. (CR)

Strategies for curbing disruptions in the classroom include setting expectations, naming and defining behaviors students must learn, modeling appropriate and alternative behavior, setting up routines showing that self-control is important, settling on predictable consequences for blurting out, having children start over if communication breaks…

Assessed the possible confounding of preadolescents' temperament as a predictor of psychological adjustment, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and expert ratings. CFAs demonstrated that temperament could be reliably measured after eliminating overlapping items. Negative emotionality and impulsivity were negatively related to symptom…

Forty-five Australian families with children with Down syndrome and 88 comparison families provided information about their children's behavior problems and involvement in household tasks. For the brothers of children with Down syndrome, significant negative correlations between household tasks and behavior problems were found on fathers' reports.…

Examines the extent to which inpatient and nonpatient samples of adolescents differ from each other with regard to prevalence and co-occurrence of emotional and behavioral problems and negative perceptions of family, school, and peers. Results reveal that co-occurrence in itself did not appear to be the distinguishing factor between the clinical…

Presents results of a study of the school experiment "Integrative Elementary School" carried out in Hamburg (Germany) that aimed at keeping children with learning, language, or behavioral problems in the (regular) elementary school, which is furnished with additional teachers trained in special education. (CMK)

This study examined early childhood characteristics of 82 11-year- old boys with either reading disabilities (RD) only, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) only, or both conditions. At ages 3 and 5 the RD only boys had performed poorly on measures of receptive and expressive language, whereas the RD/ADHD groups performed poorly on…

As part of an institutional closure program, 95 Australian individuals with mental retardation were relocated to community-based group homes. Assessments indicated improvements in adaptive functioning but not significant change in maladaptive behavior. There were also improvements in life circumstances and increased opportunities for choice-making…

Examined the relationship between mother's history of depression when their children were 0-3 years old and the child's subsequent early school adaptation, using teacher ratings of problem behaviors, peer relations, and academic performance of 5- to 8-year-olds. Found that maternal depression was related to more adjustment and behavior problems,…

Classroom discipline methods are changing with the times. Assertive Discipline is a 20-year-old program designed to help teachers successfully manage students' behavior. In the 1990s, it involves building a rapport with students and creating a discipline plan at the same time. The paper details the basic principles of the Assertive Discipline…

Twenty-six suggestions for setting up a class environment in which children with learning or behavior problems can develop friendships are presented, including integrating friendship into the curriculum, teaching necessary social skills, structuring successful recess and lunch periods, honoring children's friendships in placement decisions, and…

Describes how to create a safe, healing environment for children recovering from the effects of trauma. Discusses basic assumptions, values, goals, and the process that must be shared by all system members. Moving to an injury-based perspective can increase teachers' understanding of students' problematic behaviors and help students avoid…

Examined parent-child interaction during toddlers'"terrible twos" stage. Found that families experiencing difficulty could be identified, troubled behavior could be predicted based on family ecology, and families at moderate and high contextual risk were more likely to experience troublesome behavior when the child experienced 20 or more hours per…