The unique adaptive behavior characteristics of five subtypes of students identified as learning disabled (LD) are described: (1) non-LD (though classified as such); (2) production deficits; (3) verbal organization disorders; (4) nonverbal organization disorders; (5) global functional disorders. Implications for assessment, programming, and…

Introduces five papers in special issue on prevention in rural mental health services. Emphasizes importance of giving attention to characteristics of the rural population and to the scarcity of information about prevention applied to special conditions of rural settings. (LFL)

Assessment of clinically depressed and nondepressed children (ages 9-17) on measures of attributional style, hopelessness, depression, life stress, and child temperament suggested absence of a unique constellation of cognitive characteristics in depressed children compared with the nondepressed sample. Treatment appeared to affect self-reported…

This paper presents an ecological framework for observing and evaluating the influence of society's attitudes toward disablement on the development of sociocommunicative skills in individuals using augmentative and alternative communication systems. Reviewed are the role of remediators, intervention issues, and directions for future research.…

Described is a neurodevelopmental team assessment system called Interdisciplinary System to Plan Early Childhood Treatment (INSPECT). INSPECT monitors the status and progress of young brain-injured children by combining and synthesizing the results of norm-based, adaptive curriculum-based, and clinical judgment scales. A case profile illustrates…

Presented is a general overview of mathematics anxiety, its definition, and techniques to measure it. Included are a brief discussion of gender-related issues and an analysis of research on effects of mathematics anxiety on elementary teachers. Contained are some intervention strategies and treatments, conclusions and implications for further…

Suggests school and university intervention strategies for preventing suicides among youths, proposed following a series of teenage suicides in Minnesota: closer liaison and backup for the school counselor, peer counseling services, in-school support groups, faculty in-service on suicide, curricular introduction to coping skills and identification…

Research on social interaction of severely disabled adolescents is reviewed. A conceptual model for research and instruction is based on the reciprocal exchange of responses between two interactants. Among topics addressed are peer initiation strategies, teaching disabled students to initiate, the environmental context, social scripts, and school…

Glue sniffing and solvent misuse have seriously affected children and teenagers throughout the United Kingdom. This article discusses glue sniffing in terms of prevalence, association with disability, physical and psychological effects, signs and symptoms, counseling for sniffers, and successful interventions including an approach using videotape…

Describes five criteria (parental resources, chronicity communication between family members, parental authority, and rapport with professional helpers) of family functioning of an assessment model which can be used to determine which families could benefit from brief interventions by a school counselor. Provides results of 20 case studies with…

Describes the Principal-Teacher Interaction Study that focused on the interventions made by nine elementary school principals and their staff and on their involvement together in the implementation of new curricula. Examines what principals and others did in the process of facilitating change and what effects their interventions had on the…

A study compared the vocabulary learning/use and social and communication growth of eight severely handicapped (six with Downs Syndrome) nonoral toddlers under two conditions; (1) a microcomputer-based approach; and (2) traditional language intervention techniques. Results indicated no differential effect for either treatment condition. (Author/CB)

Observational studies focusing on adult English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students' behavior and attitudes examined different learning styles and learning strategies and suggested the need for ESL teachers to be trained to better understand and develop sensitivity toward students' individual learning styles. (Author/CB)

Out-of-date textbooks, inappropriate tests, and underprepared teachers have left mathematics in the classroom in disarray. The need for a permanent national capability to influence all agencies responsible for mathematics education is discussed. (MLW)

This paper discusses classroom variables as an academic ecology; describes how linking assessment to effective intervention requires an understanding of this ecology; reviews procedures for assessing the academic ecology including classroom observations, teacher interviews, and examination of permanent academic products; and presents a case study…