A self-rating scale was used with five mothers of preschool children with language impairments to determine whether the mothers' directive interactional style could be changed to a nondirective style without modeling or correction. Preliminary results indicated that viewing a videotape of a play session between the mother and child and completion…

Project ADVANCE (Action for the Development of Vocational Alternatives and New Concepts in Education) has served 27 deaf blind students (16 to 22 years old) through on the job training at local community businesses. Students have been involved in such positions as greenhouse workers, food service workers, maintenance personnel, and bakery…

The importance of systematic assessment of target behavior in the development of an assessment strategy for children is the cornerstone by which many parent-mediated interventions are conducted. To determine current practices of parent/child assessment and evaluation of treatment, directors of 112 community mental health clinics were surveyed.…

This paper describes an agency working with children, teenagers, and families in inner-city St. Louis neighborhoods. Its programs included all the social work specializations--casework, community development, and group work--which interacted in a holistic approach. Poverty was one common denominator among all the neighborhoods served. Youth clubs…

This report evaluates the success of the Home-School-Community Agent (HSCA) project which was implemented for the 1988-89 school year in 8 high schools and 11 middle schools in Ohio. The primary purpose of the project was to help disruptive pupils make a positive adjustment to elements that interfere with their success in school. One objective of…

The paper addresses behavior management strategies for developing new behaviors in special needs learners, strategies for changing existing behaviors, and strategies for developing behavioral generalization. An introductory overview identifies five basic principles of behavior management. Fourteen behavioral terms are then defined (e.g.,…

This training manual is a compilation of the concepts, body of knowledge, and processes gained from a pilot project developed at Bunumbu Teachers College in Sierra Leone. The content and suggested activities refer specifically to Sierra Leone. The manual emphasizes community participation in curriculum development for health and nutrition…

Students who are involved in middle school alternative education programs are often labeled as severely disruptive. They have a history of physical violence, abusive language, truancy, and sometimes police arrests and juvenile detention records. These students need to learn how to deal with stress-producing events in a more socially acceptable…

Six mildly and moderately mentally retarded adults with chronic and severe emotional/behavioral problems participated in a study of the assumption that aggression and conduct disorders reflected self-managed coping skills deficits. The study was conducted in a vocational training workshop setting located in the Waisman Center on Mental Retardation…

A "thick" description of teaching is referred to as the uncovering of the meaning of what is being said or done by knowing the structure in which it is said or done. In this ethnographic study of teachers' experiences with microcomputers in their classrooms, George Kelly's (1955) personal construct theory was used to develop a clinical interview…

A social and academic change program was designed for an 11-year-old educable mentally retarded female with Downs Syndrome. Noncompliant behavior was modified through systematic and consecutive manipulations of two reinforcement systems. Responding to teacher requests within 5 seconds was reinforced within the context of math instruction in order…

It has been suggested that training in altruistic behavior would last longer if the change were self-initiated. To compare methods of increasing altruistic behavior, 103 male college students were randomly assigned either to self-record their altruisitc behaviors, to read about helping and caring, or to a control group. All took the Minnesota…

This paper reports findings from a study of social adjustments in the face-to-face interactions of four highly original preschool children, and suggests a framework for guiding the social development of gifted and talented young children. Descriptions of the four students' behavior patterns demonstrate the social adjustments they employed in…

Teachers receiving training about child abuse issues raised many questions about what they could do in a classroom to facilitate the healing and growth of an abused/neglected child. The questions centered on three main areas of concern: (1) How are children's extreme behaviors to be interpreted? (2) What is the teacher's role? and (3) What can…

A dropout prevention program was developed to address the needs of middle school alternative students, those students who have been labeled as severely disruptive and who fall into the high-risk category for potential dropouts. Many of the students have a history of physical violence, abusive language, truancy, and police arrests or juvenile…