Four papers comment on the work of the National Special Education and Mental Health Coalition, a group attempting to identify and remediate problems of behaviorally disordered/emotionally disturbed children/youth. Specifically discussed are: service-related issues, the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders' role, and the Council for…

Feelings of helplessness can impact on learning to read. This research review illustrates problems in assessing learned helplessness, including instrumentation inadequacies, lack of comprehensive causal schemes, context specificity, etc. Observations of and discussions with the child are recommended in the assessment process. Guidelines for…

Parental response to being informed of their young child's mental handicap was examined through interviews with 50 parents. Results indicated that the majority of parents were told of the handicap in a generally positive manner, after minimal contact with the physician, and during the child's first month of life. (Author/JDD)

A group discussion presents recommendations for the design and development of Israel's residential high school for excellence in the arts and sciences. (KM)

This paper proposes "severe developmental disabilities" (SDD) as a useful umbrella term for various severe handicapping conditions such as autism, severe mental retardation, and multiple handicaps. Diagnostic criteria for SDD include language deficiency, disturbed interpersonal relationships, inconsistent response to sensory stimulation,…

A 12-item acculturation scale developed for Hispanics correlated highly with the respondents' generation, length of residence in the United States, age at arrival, ethnic self-identification, and with an acculturation scale. Language use, media preferences, and ethnic social relations were the three factors accounting for 67.6 percent of the total…

Presents results of a survey of British secondary school students which was conducted to obtain information about microcomputer use both in school and at home. Highlights include gender differences, students' attitudes toward computers, experience with computers, assessment of programming ability, and characteristics of competent programmers. (LRW)

Birthdates and educational histories of special education students (N=291) were analyzed to determine how school entrance age affected placement in special education programs. Analyses were significant for learning disabled and emotionally disturbed, but not mildly mentally retarded students, suggesting that parents and educators must insist on…

Recommends ways in which early childhood educators and other professionals can be sensitive to and supportive of the special identification needs of young interracial children and their families. (BB)

The relationship between 13 demographic social variables and the numbers of students placed in four objective and four subjective special education classifications for one school year was examined using 50 states and Washington, DC. None of the objective, but two of the subjective classifications were strongly associated with socioeconomic…

Study designed to determine which version of a game developed in strict compliance with competing models of incentive and dissonance would be more effective in producing attitude change found that results were similar in the experimental groups. Similarity is attributed to sense of identification with simulation characters reported by subjects.…

Author advocates Black Studies as a serious academic discipline and suggests it has a political nature within the educational process. It (1) satisfies Black students's needs, (2) is an agent of political socialization, (3) awakens Black students to cultural and historical experiences, (4) awakens Whites to misconceptions that perpetuate…

Focuses on the identification of the developmentally young child and the exploration of appropriate placement procedures and programs. Identification of the developmentally young child is essential and can be made through (kindergarten) teacher observations in addition to developmental placement and readiness tests. These children can be helped…

This article provides a description of a planning strategy for the involvement of the learning-disabled adult student. It examines the philosophical approach to planning; characteristics of the learning disabled adult; program planning strategies, involving diagnosis, goals and objectives, modalities and learning procedures; materials and…