This case study examines the effects of collaborative, drama-focused activities on the cognitive understanding, social inclusion and empowerment of eight Year 8 students whilst studying "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Each student chose a leadership responsibility throughout their five project-based research lessons, and the majority of…

This article presents information on the impact of hyper or hypo-sensory responses and specific strategies that can balance the systems. We examine the five sensory systems (tactile, auditory, visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular), common behaviors associated with each system, and recommend instructional strategies designed to support student…

Many kindergarten teachers have encountered children who enter school lacking the ability to control their behavior, but they may not understand the social and biological processes behind these children's disruptive behavior. The author reviews research into early childhood brain development to explain how trauma and chronic stress can make it…

In this conceptual article, we integrate existing literature on early school transitions, ecological systems theory, and student-teacher relationships to propose a framework for investigating the transition to school for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A review of the literature suggests that the quality of early student-teacher…

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a lifelong condition that significantly affects the individual's learning, development, behavior, family, and quality of life. Diagnosing children with this condition and providing effective supports is challenging for professionals because little intervention research has been performed with the…

A primary purpose of early childhood education and interventions is to promote children's acquisition of knowledge and skills linked to later social competence and academic success. In this report, special attention is given to summarizing what has been learned about early childhood classrooms as contexts for development and learning, the kinds of…

Reading difficulties and disabilities present serious and potentially lifelong challenges. Children who do not read well are more likely to be retained a grade in school, drop out of high school, become a teen parent, or enter the juvenile justice system. Building on the extant research and seminal studies, including the National Reading Panel and…

Early childhood neglect can limit a child's normal cognitive development and result in behavior problems in the classroom. When normal attachment is disrupted, learning difficulties can result in problems with time awareness. It has also been shown that an awareness of time is a key concept for the formation of organizational and math skills. This…

A program is described that is designed to improve the cognitive planning abilities and social skills of students nine to 16 years old with behavior problems. Students learn the cognitive planning sequence of stop, plan, do, and check. (CL)

The author recounts his experience in dealing with a child of normal intelligence but an unusually short attention span and physical restlessness. (JD)

The phenomenon of imitation is seen to be a powerful but underemployed rehabilitation strategy for use in special education. (Author/DB)

Elementary school teachers must clearly understand that many children of domestic violence abuse are struggling with abuse issues at home along with literacy learning at school. This article will demonstrate how a child from an adverse home environment may face additional literacy challenges in school. This article will also provide specific…

The goal of this paper is to combine selected research literature concerned with early and advanced sensorimotor development in black children, and the institutional management of their natural precocity. The first section briefly reviews selected literature about sensorimotor development in black children. The second section discusses the current…

The 12 chapters in this Australian text on early childhood education of children with special needs are organized into two parts, the foundations of early years education and programming for atypical developmental needs. The 12 chapters are: (1) "Fundamentals of Early Education" (Louise Porter); (2) "Collaborating with Parents"…

The report of the proceedings of the convention of the Council for Exceptional Children in 1970 includes papers on the following topics: a workshop report on the team approach in using educational media, means of decelerating disruptive classroom behavior, the promotion of motor development in young retardates, the use of pictorial symbols to…