Testing with a battery of naturalistic stories found that the 24 subjects with autism were impaired (compared to normal and mentally disabled controls) at providing context-appropriate mental state explanations for the story characters' nonliteral utterances. Even those autistic subjects who performed well on standard Theory of Mind tasks showed…

Describes treatment activities at the Boys Town Emergency Shelter Program for runaway and homeless youths. An examination of data collected from 100 shelter users indicated a high number of teaching interactions between staff and youths high levels of youth satisfaction with the staff; and a low frequency of youth disruptive behaviors in the…

Assessed mothers' and their seven- to nine-year-old sons' hostile attributions about one another and the coerciveness of their relationships. Obtained ratings of the sons' aggression and peer acceptance and of family life events. Subjects' hostile attributions were related to the coerciveness of their interactions. Boys who reported more stressful…

College/university fund-raising phonathons can be more effective if the script is appropriate to the prospect, the caller's role in the institution is explicit, benefits to the prospect are clear, requested donation and what it will accomplish are mentioned, reasons for immediate giving are offered, payment/fulfillment procedures are specific, and…

Evaluation of two meta-analyses of sociometric research on children with learning disabilities notes differences in their findings. Differences are attributed to effects of gender, ethnicity, and type of measurement on effect size; inadequate reporting of coding reliability; failure to include similar articles for analysis; and poor…

Argues for giving higher priority to developing cross-cultural competence in communication. Examples are provided from Japanese, where knowledge of cross-cultural pragmatics helps a learner construct meanings. Also included are examples of two approaches to designing curricula that would create contextualized opportunities for learners to develop…

Effective heterogeneous cooperative learning helps students grow academically, socially, and emotionally. Within heterogeneous groups, teachers can differentiate tasks by complexity and quantity, use high-achieving students' ideas, enhance individualized work, plan challenging peer-tutoring assignments, add enrichment options, vary criteria for…

Twenty-three high-functioning children with autism (ages 5-11), 42 6-year-old controls, and 43 10-year-old controls were presented with six emotion-evoking stories and were asked to explain protagonists' typical and atypical emotions. In the case of atypical emotions, the children with autism performed as well as the 10-year-old controls.…

Fourteen adults with high-functioning autism, 2 with Asperger syndrome, and 10 controls matched for intellectual ability and reading competence were shown excerpts of films showing characters in social situations. Adults with autism and Asperger syndrome were most impaired in their ability to answer questions about the films requiring mind-reading…

A study compared psychosocial functioning in 20 male adolescents with Asperger syndrome and 20 with severe conduct disorder. Results found those with Asperger syndrome had severe impairments in practical social functioning despite good cognitive ability and lack of significant early language delay, and high levels of anxiety and obsessional…

A principal of an alternative secondary school and a district superintendent reflect on their 12-year relationship. Because Anderson kept Gosling informed, the superintendent could handle critics while demonstrating support for an unusual program. Mutual respect, agreement on issue definition, collaborative goals, productive conversation, and…

In this article, a man with autism and a woman dating him (who has two children with autism) describe their struggles and the wisdom that they have gained trying to maintain a relationship. Symptoms of autism, the love and commitment they share, and their hope for the future are discussed. (CR)

A study compared the ability of eight high-functioning children with autism and eight controls to understand the facial expressions of real and deceptive emotion. Children with autism were less able to indicate the real emotions that story characters felt, the deceptive emotions they expressed, or the social reasons prompting a deceptive facial…

Discussion of theories of facilitation in teaching focuses on citizen participation and the role of the facilitator in town planning. Highlights include hierarchies of learning; student-centered learning; facilitating community participation; information technology skills and interpersonal skills; and a rationale for participation. (LRW)

Explores the association between parental involvement (PI) and children's positive academic performance and social competence. Study examines the relations between a set of family and demographic risk factors and PI. Results reveal different patterns of relations between the risk factors studied-parental education, maternal depression, and…