This study evaluated the effectiveness of promoting relational thinking, using "elaborative interrogation" techniques, to facilitate the content acquisition of 36 elementary school students with mild disabilities. Results indicated that students coached in relational thinking who generated their own explanations outperformed students who…

The article examines whether the material-appropriate processing approach can anticipate and explain the mnemonic effects of elaborative encoding tasks and study adjuncts for less able learners. Evidence suggests that less able learners are not capable of spontaneously exploiting the affordances of the to-be-learned material without appropriate…

Three boys (ages 9-13) with academic deficits learned delayed matching-to-sample tasks that used complex sample stimuli, consisting of a picture and printed word. The procedure engendered new constructed-response spelling performances and arbitrary relations among pictures and printed words in matching to sample. (Author/JDD)

The article critiques the current research base concerning the influence of mainstreaming on the social emotional competence of mildly handicapped children and describes a proposed study emphasizing longitudinal analysis, assessment in multiple environments, and the use of multitrait-multimethod methodologies. (Author/DB)

Normally developing and mildly developmentally delayed preschool-age boys were brought together to form playgroups. Videotapes of the groups and peer sociometric ratings indicated that delayed children had a deficit in peer-related social interactions and were seen as less competent and of lower social status by peers. (PCB)

To assess consistency between maternal and professional assessment of child performance, 31 mothers of disabled children (6-36 months old) participating in an intervention program completed measures of infant development, behavior, and characteristics. Maternal and staff assessments were found to be highly similar. Implications for programs are…

The paper presents a research-based case for mnemonic instruction with mildly disabled students, and recommends learning tasks, designs, and implementation formats. Evolution of the research, from theory-driven laboratory research to long-term classroom applications, is described. Recommendations are offered for further research. (Author/JDD)

Concurrent use of two direct observation instruments (momentary time sample of task engagement and event recording of discrete student responses) were evaluated in six middle school resource rooms using either of two reading programs. Findings tended to be program specific with differences lost or diluted when data were combined across programs.…

Reintegration of 23 elementary-age students with mild disabilities who had been in special education pull-out programs into general education classrooms for reading instruction was evaluated using curriculum-based measurement. Results indicated that, on average, reintegrated students made academic gains comparable with their general education…

This study evaluated the Collaborative Instruction Model in four secondary classes that included students with mild disabilities and low achievement. Measures included instructional actions of teachers, student engagement, student use of strategic skills, and student performance on content tests. Mixed results on student measures suggested the…

The study evaluated the psychometric properties of reliability and construct validity of the Attitude Toward Mainstreaming Scale (ATMS) in an Australian context. It was concluded that the scale is both reliable and factorially valid in an Australian context. (Author/DB)

This response to an article by Karen Tateyama-Sniezek (EC 230 117), which examined the effectiveness of cooperative learning with mildly disabled students, reconsiders a table by adding more comparison statistics, effect sizes, and standard individual measures of achievement. Noted are the scarcity of studies including individual accountability…

This study of the pragmatic characteristics of conversations between mothers and their 30 preschool children with developmental delays found significant differences between naturally occurring and researcher-introduced semistructured situations in the proportions of conversational turns taken and the pragmatic functions of mothers' and children's…

The progress of 30 mildly handicapped students in grades 3-8 was monitored simultaneously in alternative levels of a reading curriculum, and students' slopes of improvement and variability of performance were compared. Regardless of the level of the curriculum in which progress was assessed, the slope of improvement was similar over time.…

This study with 12 2nd- and 3rd-grade students with mild disabilities compared memory for new reading words following instructional sessions in which either word meaning or phonic cues were emphasized. The phonic instruction resulted in a greater number of words remembered either within sentences or on word lists. (Author/DB)