Consistent, unemotional use of timeout, without ancillary punishers, is shown to result in typical extinction curves (rather than the steeper gradient of punishment curves) for both autistic and mentally impaired children with widely different abrasive behaviors. Dangers of punishment and the therapeutic value of reduced environmental stimulation…

Analyses were made of the pattern and frequency of mothers' visits to the intensive care nursery for premature infants. Visiting was found to be uncorrelated with medical, socioeconomic, or demographic variables, but was apparently related to significantly higher state levels achieved by infants who received a program of early stimulation.…

Discusses a study of the neurophysiological effects of television viewing and their impact on learning. Study of brain waves while viewing indicates that the brain switches off from any analytical processing of the messages. (JMF)

The article lists 25 books for gifted children (ages 4-9 years) for use in stimulating the production of images and creative thinking. Each selection is annotated and includes suggestions for stimulating the reader. (PHR)

This paper reviews literature on the use of dichotic stimulation in individuals with mental retardation, and examines how noninvasive dichotic stimulation relates to hemisphere lateralization. Common findings are discussed concerning direction and magnitude of ear asymmetries, patterns of intrusion errors, and speech lateralization of Down…

Findings indicated a significant interaction between activity level and intensity of stimulation in predicting exploratory competence and total exploration among 52 toddlers of 15 months of age who were observed in their homes 6 times over a 4-week period. (RH)

Information presented concurrently and redundantly to 2 or more senses (intersensory redundancy) has been shown to recruit attention and promote perceptual learning of amodal stimulus properties in animal embryos and human infants. This study examined whether the facilitative effect of intersensory redundancy also extends to the domain of memory.…

Persons with multiple disabilities often have limited functioning of their lower limbs and tend to spend large amounts of time sitting in a wheelchair. Efforts to enable some of these persons (that is, those who are in better overall physical condition) to make some use of their legs may involve the use of support walkers. The risk may be even…

This study explored the use of focused stimulation as an intervention technique for a three-year-old boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). His parents were trained to use focused stimulation to facilitate comprehension of "what is x doing" question forms. Responses to question probes were collected at both pre- and post-treatment…

This study examined whether stimulation of immigrant and national pupils' use of high-quality helping behaviour (experimental condition) during cooperative learning (CL) in classrooms boosts their maths-related talk more than in an educational situation in which such stimulation is largely absent (control condition). A total of 59 elementary-age…

This study investigated the factor structure of motivational constructs as expressed by older adult learners and examined how these constructs correlated with selected socio-demographic characteristics at the National Open University of Taiwan (NOUT). Results were based on the responses of 371 elders to the 32-item Reasons for Participation Scale…

The current study examines the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on preschool children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes and if these relations are mediated by the quality of children's home environment and moderated by family nativity status. Data come from 1459 low-income families (n=257 and 1202 immigrant and native families,…

Suggested to parents are approaches for identifying and stimulating creative expression in gifted children. (LH)

The paper outlines the operative principles for understanding learning and discusses how these principles can help in planning a functional program for a severely or profoundly brain-damaged child. Discussed are: (1) the role of memory in learning; (2) simple associative learning (Pavlovian Conditioning and Operant Conditioning); (3) Piaget's…