The paper focuses on two research instruments, the Kohn Social Competence Scale and the Kohn Symptom Checklist, designed to assess the behavior of children in a preschool setting as well as on two factor-analytically derived dimensions of social-emotional functioning which the instruments measure. (SBH)

Discusses the techniques, rhetorical principles, and interaction skills appropriate to teaching oral communicative competence. (RL)

The effectiveness of using earliest school recollections as a diagnostic device for classifying different types of gifted and talented students with social adjustment problems at school was evaluated. Significant agreement was found between classification on the basis of earliest recollections and classification on the basis of observable behavior…

A social skills training program using self-instruction to facilitate the acquisition and generalization of two social behaviors in the work setting effectively increased the percentages of occurrence of target behaviors for five mentally retarded employees working in a sheltered workshop. The training generalized across work settings. (Author/CB)

Used mainstreamed children (N=250) from four different groups (behavior disordered, learning disabled, mildly mentally retarded/educationally handicapped, and nonhandicapped) to examine rater, ratee, and sex bias in the Teacher Ratings of Social Skills (TROSS) ratings by teachers; concurrent validity and reliability; and factor congruence with a…

Preventive discipline (as opposed to reactive corrective discipline) with special education students is achieved by raising the instructional importance of social/personal goals to the same level as academic goals. Among 10 guidelines are informing pupils of expectations, establishing a positive learning climate, avoiding threats, and structuring…

The group dynamics of a peer tutoring program using three (instead of the traditional two) students helps learning-impaired students in both academic achievement and social development. Two students are learners, while the third serves as teacher. (CB)

Outlines major premises of contextual perspectives to adult intellectual development and describes what theorists hypothesize to be changes in environmental demands that occur during adulthood. Presents research suggesting that people's conceptions of intelligence at all points during development include social competence as a form of intellectual…

Twenty-four empirical investigations of tutoring interventions with learning disabled students were evaluated. Although all authors favored tutoring, equivocal results were reported with few substantiated reports of social benefits to tutors or tutees. Methodological problems associated with such research in field settings are identified. A chart…

A 15-lesson social problem-solving training program was developed and implemented with 25 severely disturbed children (ages 7-12). Trained children generated significantly more alternative solutions at posttesting than did matched control youngsters. Gains in the overall number of solutions generated were not accompanied by improvement in the…

A superintendent of 12 years presents a guide for superintendent success in interpersonal skills. His precepts include: always demonstrate integrity; maintain a sense of humor; be prepared to lead; respond to the situation, not the person; give credit where it's due; and insist on an objective evaluation. (CJH)

Over a 10-year period, California's Old Adobe Union School District has been perfecting an outdoor education program that takes sixth graders away from home for 6 days and nights of scientific and environmental study, recreational and survival skill development, and social interaction. (PGD)

Assumptions were made that children differ in production of imaginative behavior and speech-to-self or private speech. Three-, four-, and five-year-old children were observed with fantasy materials. Verbal fantasy play was assessed in relation to other individual characteristics of children. Results are reported. (JS)