Background information is provided on gifted students with learning disabilities and/or physical impairments. The need for collaborative interventions to meet the needs of these students is discussed, viewing collaboration as personal interaction, as the interaction of roles, and as interinstitutional interaction. A collaborative/consultation…

This article discusses extremes of parenting behavior, such as perfectionism, overindulgence, overcoercion, and overpermission, and tips for avoiding them. Emphasis is on parenting in relation to the personality of the gifted child. Roots of these behaviors, diagnostic measures, and moderating practices are described with examples of each behavior…

Contingency contracting and group counseling were provided to 26 mildly to moderately handicapped middle school students with high rates of truancy. Subjects exhibited attendance gains after treatment; gains were not maintained at followup but attendance rates were still higher than the rates of control students. Measures of academic performance…

The article examines the transition to parenthood that occurs for parents of full-term healthy infants and the similarities and differences in the experiences of parents of technology-assisted infants. Implications for early intervention practice for technology-assisted infants and their families are then discussed. (Author/JDD)

This article comments on a paper (EC 231 901) calling for reduced preoccupation with the physical settings used for interventions with mentally retarded individuals. It recommends the application of normalization to both: (1) the social-psychological dimensions of environments and (2) the physical characteristics and strategies of service…

This commentary on EC 231 901 notes that mainstreamed education is not always appropriate and preferable to self-contained class placement for students with mental retardation. The school must identify elements of the mainstream education program that are likely to meet the child's instructional, social, and emotional needs and contribute to the…

Entry-level university programs (N=449) in eight disciplines were surveyed concerning students' preparation to provide services to young children with disabilities and their families. Although considerable variability was found across disciplines, the average student receives little specialized information concerning either the infancy period or…

This study examined 40 articles published in the "American Journal on Mental Retardation" or the "Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps" (JASH) from 1976-78 and 1986-88. Both journals published low numbers of articles with ecological validity in the late 1970s, but JASH subsequently increased…

This paper argues that many social validity processes in applied behavior analysis are actually measuring consumer satisfaction and not the habilitative validity of goals, procedures, or outcomes. The term "habilitative validation" is proposed to replace social validity, and use of more objective assessment methods is encouraged.…

Comparison of two interventions on the peer social interactions of 105 young children with and without hearing impairments found that the integrated activities intervention resulted in greater gains in total positive peer interaction than the social skills intervention. However, withdrawal of either intervention resulted in decreased peer…

In this case study, music was applied noncontingently and contingently across four settings with an adolescent male with autism, to reduce aberrant, repetitive vocalizations. The intervention was associated with dramatic reductions in the primary aberrant behavior and reductions in two other aberrant behaviors. Task performance was differentially…

The advantages of an ecological approach for developing instructional interventions for students with special needs are discussed. The value of ongoing dialog among a variety of professionals and a wide range of assessment instruments is stressed. Guidelines for implementing ecological assessment by specialists in regular classrooms and during…

Responses to youth violence include intervention programs to teach children alternative skills for solving problems and to challenge superficial beliefs about the glories of violence. Children on a destructive path need someone they can trust who will guide them. Lists 29 measures in response to school violence and the percentage of school…

Examines the wide variation that exists among home visiting programs in their content, theory, and operation, outlining the theoretical goals and operational dimensions of such programs. Numerous home visiting programs that focus on parents of young children are highlighted. Observes that few programs have been rigorously evaluated using the…

Reviews diagnosis, developmental progression, and etiology of oppositional defiant and early-onset conduct disorders (ODD/CD) in children. Describes family and school behavioral programs for helping these children. Notes that most successful programs will be those which target multiple symptoms of ODD/CD across risk factors, multiple settings…