Incidental teaching procedures were used to train a 16-year-old mildly handicapped student to use social amenities in a resource classroom. Generalization to another resource room and an art classroom was assessed. Results indicated increased use of social amenities in the training setting and generalization settings. (Author/PB)

Examined attempts by five-year-old children to influence mothers and peers. Children were immediately successful with mothers less often than with peers and were more often able to negotiate a compromise with mothers than with peers. Mothers' strategies for influencing children predicted children's styles of influencing peers. (BC)

The Spokane (Washington) Public School District behavior-impaired program is dedicated to providing a safe, nurturing learning environment where defined boundaries, clear expectations, and consistency foster mutual respect, social appropriateness, and trust. The program's success requires faculty and administrator support of mainstreaming…

Notes that firms no longer want college graduates with "just" high intelligence quotients, 4.0 grade point averages, technical expertise, and high ambition but are also looking for team players. Reviews economic and societal trends that have contributed to this shift in organizational psychology and examines characteristics of workers who are most…

Children with dyssemia, a social disorder, cannot properly express or understand certain nonverbal language. The article examines six types of dyssemia and offers suggestions to help teachers interpret the signs and assist dyssemic students. Help includes making the child aware of the problem, having the child practice exercises, and monitoring…

The relations of dependency and self-criticism to social function were studied for 106 secondary-school students who completed measures of depressive experiences and interpersonal problems. Results show that self-criticism is strongly associated with reporting interpersonal problems, but dependency is only marginally related to interpersonal…

Two children (ages 13 and 16) with autism were taught to differentiate appropriate from inappropriate social behaviors. Children's treated behaviors improved rapidly, and there were generalized changes in untreated social behaviors. Results suggest the possibility of identifying pivotal response classes of social behavior that may improve peer…

The normal course of children's development of social competence from preschool through high school is reviewed, and its relationship with developing language skills is discussed. Peer aspects of developing social competence, particularly those relating to friendship development and the development of interpersonal understanding, are highlighted.…

School boards and superintendents must cease their enmity and become allies. The board-superintendent relationship can founder over ambiguous goals, rules, and expectations; mutual mistrust; interpersonal sabotage; bickering among board members; and superheroic expectations for superintendents. Boards should focus on the big picture, identify…

Social skills training practices for persons with mental retardation are summarized, along with reasons for their lack of maintenance and generalization. A cognitive-behavioral definition and model of social competence and social skills are described, which unify social learning concepts with recent research and practice and focus on their utility…

Examined whether depressed adolescent mothers experienced more psychosocial stressors than did nondepressed mothers and which stressors best predict maternal depression. Findings from 154 adolescent mothers revealed that depressed mothers consistently reported more problems in most areas of psychosocial functioning. Best predictors of maternal…

The Social Strategy Rating Scale, which measures social competence in young children with disabilities across multiple contexts, was completed with 47 toddlers in 3 social settings over a 16-month period. The scale exhibited relatively high interobserver agreement across items, high internal consistency, and sensitivity to skill changes over time.…

This literature review finds that about half of all children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have significant problems with peer relationships. Although social skills interventions are commonly advocated, few studies have systematically evaluated social skills interventions with ADHD. Research suggests serious limitations in…

Implementation of a social skill training package with three elementary-school children who had behavioral and learning disorders resulted in increasing student acquisition of targeted social behaviors, which in turn led to lengthier peer interactions. Increases in nontargeted social responses were also demonstrated. (Author/JDD)

This paper examines data from three survey activities conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes for specific relevance to social/behavioral outcomes development and assessment. Findings suggest that little effort is being directed to the measurement of the extent to which students with behavioral disorders are meeting such outcomes.…