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…

"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…

The relationship between social and communicative interventions and transition-related outcomes for secondary-aged youth with disabilities is explored in this systematic review. In all, 30 studies intervening with 316 youth with a broad range of disability labels (both high- and low-incidence disabilities) were reviewed. Subgroup analyses were…

The conversational strategies of the learning disabled and nondisabled children were analyzed for discourse and turn taking behaviors. Learning disabled children asked fewer questions and were less likely to produce open ended questions than nondisabled children. In turn, their conversational partners were less likely to provide elaborative…

The pragmatic competence of 33 learning disabled (LD) children (grades 2, 4 and 6) was examined on a task that allowed for the separate assessment of linguistic and social knowledge, i.e., the ability to appropriately vary politeness and persuasive strategies as a function of listener status. LD and non LD Ss made requests of four imaginary…

The semantic usage of five learning disabled (LD) and five nonlearning disabled sixth-grade boys in conversational interaction with an adult and with peers was analyzed. Results indicated that, overall, LD and non-LD boys were highly similar in meaning usage and showed internal consistency of meaning usage across interaction types. (Author/DB)

Research is reviewed on conversational competence in learning disabled (LD) children. LD children are viewed as eager to fulfill conversational responsibilities while compensating for linguistic inadequacies. Findings emphasize the importance of teaching conversational skills. (CL)

This study examined the conversational engagement techniques employed by children with and without learning disabilities in dyadic interactions. Analysis indicated that the 60 learning-disabled subjects (9-13 years old) employed engagement-related techniques as sophisticated as those of their nondisabled peers, though they did so less consistently…

Research is reviewed on the communicative ability of learning disabled (LD) adolescents and its effects on acceptance by peers. Difficulties are noted in social perception, oral language, and social experience. Suggestions for enhancing communication and social skills include using group-contingent reinforcements and exposing LD students to normal…

The paper tabularly presents information strategies (goals and instructional activities) for managing learning disabled children with oral communication disorders. The strategies are based on a comprehensive organizational framework of pragmatic abilities comprised of three major components: communicative intention, presupposition, and social…

Conversational competence of 20 learning disabled (LD) second and fourth graders was examined through analysis of videotaped interviews between Ss and their peers. Results indicated that LD Ss were cooperative conversational partners who were able to participate in the reciprocal exchange of turns; however, they were less skilled than nondisabled…

The effects of modeling on conversational skills and on metaconversational knowledge of 52 learning disabled and normally achieving boys (grades 2 to 8) were investigated. Ss listened to one of two brief audiotapes: (1) a dialogue of a child interviewer modeling open ended questions, conversational devices, and contingent comments and responses;…

The study evaluated the communicative abilities of 30 learning disabled and 30 nondisabled children (ages 9-13 years) in two communication tasks. The study also attempted to investigate the relationships among factors believed to influence such abilities and to identify subgroups of disabled children based on profiles derived from the following…

Studied the effects of conversation skills training for two retarded and one learning disabled participant in a sheltered workshop. Results indicated that participants improved their use of targeted conversational skills over the course of training, but had difficulty generalizing target behaviors to other individuals. (JAC)