Two studies compared the effectiveness of different strategies for promoting generalization of staff skills in teaching self-care routines to clients with developmental disabilities. Results indicated that general case training was more effective at promoting generalized training effects than provision of written instructions, single case…

Eleven mothers with developmental disabilities who provided neglectful child care received parent training. The training (consisting of verbal instructions, pictorial manuals, modeling, feedback, and reinforcement) resulted in rapid acquisition and maintenance of child-care skills in all mothers. (Author/JDD)

Simulation training and a prompt hierarchy were found to facilitate acquisition of clean intermittent self-catheterization skills by a four-year-old male with myelomeningocele. The child was first taught to perform catheterization on a doll, then on himself. Skills were clustered into three tasks of diapering, cleansing, and catheterization.…

Outlines how contemporary reading theorists conceptualize reading fluency, discussing why it is a good indicator of reading process efficiency. Suggests ways to foster development of reading fluency. Children must acquire the automatic word and phrase processing that enables fluent reading and lets them allocate cognitive capacity to…

Discusses a new language curriculum model called the "merry-go-round model," which involves the use of levels rather than courses. By emphasizing skill acquisition rather than course completion, this system allows individual progression and groups students according to their level of skill development. Assessment in this program is…

The article reviews what is known about memory strategy development and recommends that teachers of children with learning problems provide intensive training, offer feedback about the strategy, and suggest other situations in which the strategy could be used. (DB)

Presents ideas on how to develop literacy skills in the context of science. (WRM)

Describes a lesson planning framework that content-based instruction teachers can adapt to their instructional materials, student populations, and classroom settings. Applying the framework to an authentic reading passage, the sample lesson illustrates how teachers can develop activities that supplement the content, increase student access to and…

Offers a series of reflections on the theoretical bases of language teaching viewed from the perspective of the New Technologies (NT), and proposes a reconfiguration of the pedagogical triangle. In light of the tremendous impact of NT, different ways of treating the four language skills in traditional and virtual environments are considered.…

Describes a pilot study that aimed at gaining insights into how language learners benefit from training in interlingual subtitling. The study showed that students' communication competence in both their first and second language improved while they simultaneously mastered transferable skills. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that exposure to recurrent topics and vocabulary in authentic texts helps students develop reading competence and confidence. Approaches narrow reading from three perspectives: one employing a corpus analysis of newspaper readings to demonstrate how narrow reading lowers the vocabulary load of texts, one learner-focused, reporting…

Discusses the use of perspective, or showing things as the human eye sees them, when creating reflections and transparencies in works of art. Provides examples of artwork using transparency, reflection, and refraction by M. C. Escher, Richard Estes, and Janet Fish to give students an opportunity to learn about these three art techniques. (CMK)

Analyzes the generalization failures of social-skills instruction, outlines some critical differences between instruction in social- and academic-skills areas, and suggests the depth of analysis, instruction, and facilitation that will be required to achieve generalization of social skills. The modification of environments to support behavior is…

Discusses problems that educators face in attempting to emphasize high-level cognitive skills in their curriculum. Identifies four elements of informal learning that guide the creation of these skills, through a comparison of the characteristics of formal and informal learning environments. Notes benefits for development of students' conceptual…

Five preschool students with disabilities received direct instruction on matching shapes, colors, and numbers or letters, followed by guided practice using constant time delay under two conditions: computer-assisted instruction (CAI) with interactive software and teacher-assisted instruction (TAI). CAI was either equal or superior to TAI across…