Discusses how the genetic aspects of schizophrenia must be described within the interactive context of psychosocial stress. Suggests that the mental health profession must consider the environmental and social components of this condition, including the clients' relationships, families, and communities. States that psychotherapeutic interventions…

Examines the roles of childcare involvement and parent-child interaction quality on the development of school readiness and social skills among low-income, minority kindergarten children. Findings provide mixed evidence on the role of childcare exposure, with early entry into childcare predicting higher levels of social skills ratings and…

Four preschool children who exhibited aggressive methods for resolving social interaction conflicts were taught a problem-solving strategy. Results found that acquisition of the problem-solving strategy influenced the types of alternative solutions the children provided to social interaction conflicts. Students produced more prosocial resolutions…

A study explored the patterns of friendship among 14 teenagers with Down syndrome attending mainstream schools or resourced provision in mainstream schools. Students had very firm notions about the nature of friendship; however the friendship they envisaged did not always materialize due in part to geographical, practical, and safety concerns.…

This article considers both the intrapersonal and interpersonal issues that have historically caused difficulty for groups of gifted students, including self-knowledge and self-acceptance, irrational beliefs, need for independence, heightened sensitivity, frustration tolerance, unbalanced value, and tolerating others. Interventions are provided…

Argues that research into the power relations between young children has the potential to provide new insight into children's relations with their peers. Maintains that without such insight, understanding of peer relations can be only partial. Discusses seven themes for the analysis of interpersonal power in children's peer relations. Offers…

School nurses play a critical role in the effective school- based treatment of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They can help debunk myths associated with medications for ADHD, explain the ongoing nature of treatment for children with ADHD, and help develop behavior support plans. Sidebars offer suggestions for…

This article provides examples and illustrations of how people with aphasia can and do demonstrate their competence in managing their lives despite chronic aphasia. It discusses a number of ways in which persons with aphasia and their families can learn to live fully despite the intrusion of aphasia. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Older siblings' contributions to younger siblings' competence net of parenting processes were examined with 152 pairs of first-born (M=11.7 years) and second-born (M=9.2 years) siblings in rural, single-parent African American families. Structural equation modeling indicated that parenting was linked with older siblings' competence, which in turn…

This study developed and evaluated a model of good practice linking diagnosis and intervention in young children with autism. Ten toddlers with autism underwent an intervention involving home visits, modeling, workshops and written information with parents as 'therapists' in naturally occurring situations. Within 18 months all children made…

A study examined differences between 30 high school students who participated in a peer buddy program with peers with severe disabilities and 30 who chose not to volunteer. After one semester, participants showed greater social willingness to interact with those with disabilities, greater knowledge of disabilities, and increased contact scores.…

A study involving an adult with severe mental retardation and other disabilities found that the addition of a communication device, job coach social facilitation training, and eliciting co-worker support for social integration increased the social interactions of the employee in a supported employment setting. (Contains references.) (CR)

Three focus groups were convened, consisting of 11 mothers of elementary-age students with various disabilities. Mothers viewed friendship as both an important and a worthy end in itself. Nine peer-specific friendship goals for friendship development were identified, along with 3 broader goals to which friendship was perceived to contribute.…

A study compared 13 children (ages 5-7) with autism and 13 typical children on their ability to match videotaped still, dynamic, and strobe emotional and non-emotional facial expressions with photographs. The children with autism did not perform significantly worse than controls on any experimental conditions. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

A study involving eight high-functioning children with autism found they could define words, identify multiple meanings for ambiguous words, and make inferences from mental state verbs to given or presupposed knowledge. However, they failed to infer what mental state verbs implied in context and to make inferences about social scripts. (Contains…