The article reviews variables (such as purpose of expression, antecedents, prompts, and consequences) related to the development of non-linguistic communication skills for students with severe or profound handicaps and suggests that future research efforts be directed toward prediction analysis using a two-tiered process. (Author)

Describes a Delphi study in which Finnish experts predicted the extent of information technology use in libraries and information centers. Predictions are summarized in the areas of workstations; fax and electronic mail; videotex; print, electronic, and optical publishing; indexing and storage of sounds and images; speech recognition and scanning…

Many educators are concerned about grades, particularly about the competitiveness they engender, about their weakness in predicting future success, and about the discouraging effect they have on less successful students. Appended is the grading system at the School Without Walls in Rochester, New York, where grades have been nearly eliminated. (SI)

The authors analyzed three techniques employed in technological forecasting: (1) brainstorming, (2) extrapolation, and (3) scenario writing. They argue that these techniques have value to practitioners, particularly managers, who are often affected by technological change. (CH)

Hypothesized that young children have knowledge about their memory that they cannot articulate, but can reflect upon and use in problem-solving. Half of 48 kindergartners made prospective predictions about the number of words they would recall from a list, and the other half made concurrent, nonverbal predictions. Concurrent predictions were more…

The study investigated the ability of child protective service workers to distinguish videotaped interactions of physically abusive parent-child dyads from interactions of nonabuse dyads during a teaching task. Child protection workers achieved a 76 percent rate of accuracy in identify the abuse status of dyads after only three minutes of observed…

A review of insurance changes in the commercial liability market during the past five years shows cost increases to stabilize the market. However, a vast expansion in potential liability means that costs will continue to be high even for self-insurance groups such as school districts. (MLF)

This brief report provides information on the present demographic status of the Chinese population, the status of Chinese people with disabilities, and future trends, including a gradual rise in the numbers of people with disabilities and a decline in the proportion of those disabled with visual impairments. (DB)

Fifteen college students with dyslexia completed a dictation task, spelling recognition task, and nonword spelling task. Their spelling problems were primarily associated with failure to acquire knowledge of the mappings between spelling and sounds of English. Their use and knowledge of morphological information and visual information for spelling…

Examined the accuracy of performance estimates by preschool and early grade school children to determine whether age-related improvements in accuracy may be attributed to better predictions or better performance. Found that older children's improved predictive accuracy on an academic task was due to improved performance, whereas their improved…

It has previously been reported that a Pathfinder-based representation of domain knowledge is more predictive of classroom examination performance than the underlying data from which the Pathfinder representation is derived (relatedness ratings of pairs of concepts). Why this should be is analyzed with test results from 141 college students. (SLD)

Congruent career aspirations and current occupations of 61 undergraduates were significantly related to career locus of control but not to age or career decision-making self-efficacy. The latter was associated with age and year in college. (SK)

When 1,140 personnel managers identified age-graded jobs for nonmanagerial employees, those defined as mainly for older workers were perceived to make fewer cognitive demands; in these jobs, some specialized expertise was considered necessary; prediction of fewer physical demands for older workers was not confirmed; and prediction that greater…

A modified Visual Expectation Paradigm assessed the role of picture content in the spatiotemporal expectations of 80 infants. Stable picture content information facilitated formation of expectations about when and where pictures would appear. Two month olds' reactions were consistently slower than those of three month olds.(LB)

Analysis of staff perceptions of classes of reinforcers and aberrant behaviors of 480 people with predominantly severe or profound mental retardation suggested 8 classes of reinforcers (e.g., consumable, play) and 5 classes of maladaptive behaviors (irritability, lethargy, stereotypy, hyperactivity, and inappropriate speech). Each class of…