This paper addresses optimal strategies in teaching essential life and communication skills to children with Down syndrome, autism and other developmental delays. Evidence from the literature concerning the relative efficacy of hand-over-hand (self-modeling) in contrast to passive observational teaching techniques (e.g., video modeling) shows the…

Children with autism exhibit significant deficits in imitation skills which impede the acquisition of more complex behaviors and socialization, and are thus an important focus of early intervention programs for children with autism. This study used a multiple-baseline design across five young children with autism to assess the benefit of a…

Boys and girls were exposed to a same- or opposite-sex televised peer model who played with a sex-inappropriate toy for the children. The model was then administered positive or negative reinforcement or no consequences by a female adult figure. Girls played with the sex-inappropriate toy more than boys following exposure, particularly when the…

The effects of the affective relationship between a model and observer and locus of control on imitative behavior were investigated using a simple imitative task with 28 boys as subjects. Results indicated the need to control the affective relationship between model and observer and support Bandura's position that imitative behavior is primarily…

The assumption that after the appropriate educational event, patient care audits (PCA) can demonstrate improvement in physician performance was examined in a study that reaffirmed earlier findings that the apparent improvement in doctor performance after a PCA may be improvement that was already occurring, with no greater improvement occurring…

A field trip to a local bank is a practical way to make economics more relevant to students. For journal availability see SO 504 303. (DE)

For one of a series of related assignments, students were to ride a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) bus or commuter train through the heart of Chicago, to experience the contrasts among the people there, and to write about what was learned. The students were to take an analytical view: What does this collection of images tell the student about the…

"Shadowing" is the metaphor used by a junior high school for the career awareness program the article describes, in which students spend a day observing individuals in various occupations. (AJ)

Theory and research regarding four levels of concept attainment and three uses of concepts as specified by the conceptual learning and development (CLD) model are described. The strategy of a longitudinal intervention study is detailed. This study is designed to determine the effects of implementing both the model of instructional programming for…

Traditional learning theories stress that people are either conditioned through reward and punishment or by close association with neutral or evocative stimuli. These direct experience theories do not account for people's learning complex behavior through observation. Attentional, retention, motoric reproduction, reinforcement, and motivational…

This module is designed to aid the fifth-grade teacher in implementing a self-awareness program to develop positive self-images among his or her pupils. Terminal and performance objectives for students are described, and activities leading to the realization of those objectives are suggested. The materials necessary for each activity are listed. A…

This paper describes the production of three 30-second prosocial television spots and the evaluation of the effects of these spots on children's behavior. The psychological process of observational learning was used to conceptualize the way television viewing influences children's behavior; the three stages of observational learning (exposure,…

A project designed to increase positive teacher actions utilized five fifth-grade teachers as subjects. Each of the five teachers was observed teaching on five different days; each observation was conducted approximately one week apart for a period of 30 minutes. The first two observations provided baseline data since the teachers were not aware…

This study represents part of an extended research program designed to explore the various parameters of imaginative play in children and their relationship to the later development of daydreaming and various cognitive skills or personality characteristics. The specific focus of this investigation was on role of adult intervention represented…