It's easy to imagine that a deep silence hangs over people with autism, but nothing could be further from the truth, at least in the author's case. His son Cameron has always been a noisy, histrionic person. He speaks most volubly with his body, and over the years the author and his wife Leslie have learned to interpret his gleeful…

Fifty-nine 6- to 9-year-old children evaluated three discipline strategies (reasoning, verbal power assertion, acknowledgment of feelings), and mothers were asked to predict their children's evaluations. Maternal knowledge scores were derived. Mothers were less accurate at predicting their children's perceptions of discipline when the misdeed in…

Guided by a pamphlet designed to encourage family conversations about tobacco, parents of 6th- and 8th-grade daughters successfully carried out discussions about tobacco use in a nonaversive manner. Daughters reported parental advice was helpful. Topics discussed include consequences of smoking and difficulty of quitting. Suggestions for topics…

This document describes an experiential workshop which focuses on the application of key communication strategies to alleviate relationship problems between older parents and their adult children. Three communication devices are outlined which can make possible an exchange of ideas and opinions and promote an increased understanding between parent…

Recommends talking to children to help them develop language skills. Identifies daily routines (mealtime, bath time, dressing, play) as ideal opportunities to engage in parallel talk, describing out loud what the child is seeing, hearing, or thinking during the activity and suggests self-talk as parents perform routine actions around the home.…

The parents of a six-year-old disruptive boy were observed interacting with their son during 20 assessment-oriented, 10-minute experimental sessions. An experimental design consisting of alternately arranged baseline and self-monitoring conditions was utilized. Following the reversal-to-baseline phase, parents were given specialized training in…

Discusses the role of narration in the adapted verbal interactions between child and adult that help children acquire and master language, from birth on. Notes that, when a child attempts to retell stories read aloud, he or she can progressively master the kind of syntactically structured and decontextualized language necessary for access to…

This report contains a series of articles from Japan, New Zealand, and the U.S. dealing with child development. The articles concern: (1) a social dynamic theory of early human development and a program of research based on this theory; (2) the need for intervention and the structure of intervention for children with disabilities on the island of…