The focus of this article is a research and development project underway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The project is Toronto First Duty, reflecting that the "first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well-housed, clothed, fed, and educated, till it attain years of discretion," according to 19th century…

The issue of underachievement among the gifted has captured the interest of educators sporadically over the past thirty years. In the most basic definition, an underachiever is a student who does not achieve in the academic areas at a level consistent with his or her capability. When underachievement is applied to the gifted, it becomes a more…

Background: This study examines the contribution of the marital relationship to the well-being of both mothers and fathers of children with developmental disabilities. Parent well-being is conceptualized in terms of mental health, parenting stress and parenting efficacy. Methods: These analyses are based on data from 67 families participating in…

Project EXCITE was developed and implemented specifically to raise the achievement of gifted minority students in a large suburban school district of Chicago so that they could qualify for advanced programs and accelerated tracks in high school in mathematics and science. This paper describes the goals, components, eligibility, and selection…

We study the benefits of junior kindergarten for linguistic-minority 4-year-olds compared to their linguistic-majority classmates from the same low-income neighborhoods. At the end of the school year, linguistic-minority children made significantly greater improvements in language skills than their host society classmates. At the mid-year point,…

This article summarizes the scant existing research on the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on mothers and their babies during the peripartum period and describes a pilot research project within the Infant-Family Service (IFS) at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, an outpatient mental health service for inner-city families with…

This study investigated the caseload characteristics and the types of intervention implemented for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). A survey was developed and distributed to 75 speech-language therapists working for Special Education within the New Zealand Ministry of Education. A total of 34 surveys were completed and returned.…

This study addressed four questions which parents of children with selective mutism (SM) frequently ask: (1) Is SM associated with anxiety or oppositional behavior? (2) Is SM associated with parenting and family dysfunction? (3) Will my child fail at school? and (4) Will my child make friends or be teased and bullied? In comparison to a sample of…

Early childhood education in Hong Kong is in a transition time. The Hong Kong government's Education Commission is urging the field of early childhood education to engage in a substantial paradigm shift in order to achieve the goals of educational reform (Education Commission, 1999a). Informed by recent overseas research, government directives…

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is the nation's leading legal advocate for the rights of adults and children with mental disabilities. The Center uses a coordinated strategy of federal policy advocacy, legal support for a nationwide network of advocates, and creation of educational materials to help families, professionals,…

Sociocultural contexts influence social behaviors in ways that may not always be reflective of majority-culture norms. They also may vary the impact social skills training (SST) programs have on minority students with learning disabilities. To better understand culturally sensitive and effective SST for students with learning disabilities, it is…

This article focuses on factors that promote the use of appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities in early childhood inclusive settings. It investigates the kinds of accommodations that were used with two children who were educated in two settings--a mainstream classroom, and a small unit in which the majority of children were on…

PACT: Helping Children with Special Needs, an affiliate of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, operates a therapeutic nursery that serves families who have at least one child from birth to 3 years of age, and who are living in a Baltimore City homeless shelter. In partnership with the Martin Luther King Early Head Start Program…

The purpose of the study was to examine the engagement of preservice teachers in the kind of authentic experiences that provided the modeling needed to make high-quality instruction in mathematics a reality for young children. Inasmuch as these preservice teachers had not yet received any formal methods classes in mathematics, the authors…

In recent years the problem of sexually abusive youth has been increasingly recognized as a significant issue in our community. This paper provides a brief overview of the literature that shows sexually abusive youth to be a heterogeneous population. We argue for the development of typologies of adolescent sexual offenders to assist in the guiding…