In our inclusive schools, teachers work with many children who have learning differences such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities. For most children with special learning needs such as these, educators focus on helping them to achieve academic skills. However, educators are finding that delays in social…

Michael Shaughnessy, shares a conversation with Helen Dudeney, a private consultant who has been actively involved in working with gifted children since 1988. She was originally, trained and worked as an accountant and was very involved with working with children through volunteering for many years as a leader in the Scout Association. She started…

Cooperation is an observable and measurable relationship skill identified within social and emotional learning paradigms. Although cooperation plays a role in the academic and behavioral development of students, educators may not have the time, expertise, or motivation to target cooperation skills explicitly. Self-monitoring, grounded in…

The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) believes it is essential to define giftedness in a way that both reflects best thinking in the field and moves beyond a focus on identification criteria to a deeper understanding of the complex nature of giftedness and the multi-faceted approach to services required to appropriately serve…

Social skills training (SST) is increasingly used as an adjunct to academic interventions for children and youth with learning disabilities (LD). A brief context and an overview of SST are provided and the issue related to the establishment of SST efficacy via extant meta-analyses is described. Generally, outcomes for SST efficacy are mixed, at…

The coexistence of visual impairments and learning disabilities presents unique challenges. It is imperative that teachers be apprised of the characteristics of this population as well as instructional strategies targeted at meeting their unique needs. The authors highlight typical patterns of performance and provide suggestions for effective…

As many educators can attest, the quality of teacher-student relationships often has enormous impact on student success at every level. When teacher-student relationships improve, concurrent improvements in classroom behavior such as reductions in aggression and increases in compliance with rules can be expected. Students have also shown…

Educators today are challenged with the task of designing curricula and standards for students of varying abilities. While technology and innovation steadily improve classroom learning, teachers and administrators continue to struggle in developing the best methodologies and practices for students with disabilities. "Models for Effective…

Students with high-incidence disabilities, including emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD), learning disabilities (LD), and mild intellectual disabilities (MID), demonstrate academic, social, and behavioral deficits to varying degrees, which places them at risk for school failure. Because students with E/BD face dire consequences, it is…

Social skill deficits and learning disabilities often coexist. Academic work is negatively impacted by students' lack of social skills. Remediation of these deficits in pull-out programs has not generally resulted in transfer to real-world settings. Embedding social skills instruction within literature during a read-aloud session taught in the…

In Canadian public primary schools, newcomer West African refugees like other ethnic immigrant students are a visible minority group, often referred as Linguistic and Culturally Different (LCD) students. In the province of British Columbia, newcomer immigrant students are subjected to a battery of tests, as soon as they enroll in the primary…

Research has consistently demonstrated that many children with learning disabilities (LD) may also have related social skill deficits. Kavale and Forness (1995), for instance, found that 75% of students with LD also show some difficulties in social skills that interfere with their ability to learn. The good news is that, for many of these…

"Socially ADDept" helps educators and parents teach the hidden rules of social behavior to children with limited social skills, notably those with special needs like ADHD, learning disabilities, Asperger's and high-functioning autism, Tourette Syndrome, and nonverbal learning disabilities. The author provides all the information parents and…

At the Kansas Institute, research has concentrated on the problems of learning disabled (LD) adolescents. Epidemiological studies revealed the unique characteristics of LD high schoolers. A curriculum comprised of strategy training, social skills, modified materials and instructional procedures was developed. Instructional, motivational, and…

This article focuses on teaching students specific disability related self-determination skills, rather than activities that can be used with non-specified populations. In this design, lesson plans are used and suggested as a systematic means of instruction for students with deficits in learning (i.e., learning disabilities, mild mental…