This book discusses findings and recommendations of the Committee on Minority Representation in Special Education of the National Research Council. In chapter 1, the current study of the disproportion of minorities in special and gifted education is put into historical context. In chapter 2, an analysis of federal data on the representation of…

New research shows the critical impact of a child's "environment of relationships" on developing brain architecture during the first months and years of life. We have long known that interactions with parents, caregivers, and other adults are important in a child's life, but new evidence shows that these relationships actually shape brain circuits…

The cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the U.S. school population is now and long has been underrepresented in programs for academically advanced students (see, e.g., Donovan & Cross, 2002; Marland, 1972). In the past decade, however, educators have offered several proposals for increasing the diversity of programs for the gifted and talented…

This research brief describes the developmental risks present in a cohort of children coming into contact with the child welfare system between 1999 and 2000, as well as the services the children receive to address these risks. The findings are drawn from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), a unique study that provides…

The 12 chapters of this book provide a synthesis of what is currently known about otitis media and its sequelae on aspects of child development. Chapters are grouped into four sections: definition, prevalence, and diagnosis; auditory, language, and learning sequelae; medical and surgical management; and international perspectives and future…

This resource for parents uses a workbook format to provide specific ideas for parents and other caretakers to use with infants from birth to 8 months of age. Suggested activities are based on an understanding of how the brain develops during infancy and the types of stimulation that promote neural efficiency. The book begins with a discussion of…

This resource for parents and other caretakers to use with infants from 8 to 18 months provides a synthesis of research on early brain development and objective-oriented instruction as the basis for activities that promote intellectual development. Part 1 of the book provides an overview of early development, discusses general ways of enhancing…

Language acquisition and other developmental processes in children do not occur haphazardly, but rather follow a sequence that is well-established, and though subject to a moderate variation in detail from child to child, surprisingly uniform. This book provides information to parents concerning their children's development levels and attainments…

This book describes the major differences between men and women in cognitive or problem-solving abilities and discusses the possible biological contributions to such differences. The book argues that sex differences in cognitive patterns and in motor skills arose out of complementary evolutionary histories of men and women and that evidence for…

Noting the fascination of both researchers and the general public with possible gender differences in human cognition and whether these differences originate in biology, childhood influences, or cultural stereotypes, this book summarizes research studies on gender differences in cognition. The book examines social and cultural implications of this…

This document describes the work of several universities to make teacher-family partnerships a high priority in teacher preparation. The case studies of several successful programs demonstrate that teacher preparation programs can undertake various approaches to help teachers develop the skills and knowledge needed to carry out their partnership…

The Illinois Early Learning Standards were developed by the Illinois State Board of Education with the assistance of hundreds of educators. The goal of the standards is to provide teachers and caregivers useful information that is directly needed as part of their daily classroom work. Based on comments from educators, parents, and various experts…

This paper examines the relation of cognitive and developmental-contextual variables to alcohol use in adolescence and early adulthood in an attempt to increase the understanding of alcohol use during this age period. Components for each of the rational decision making theories, specifically attitude, subjective norm, and self-efficacy, were…

This paper describes and compares six models for teaching second languages developed and adopted since 1840 (grammar-translation, direct, structural, situational, audiolingual, and communicative methods), and proposes a seventh, the cognitive-linguistic method, incorporating Noam Chomsky's theory of learning. The model takes both extralinguistic…

This study was conducted to identify the personality characteristics of high achieving developmental, or remedial, students and to discover how personality characteristics relate to academic performance among high-achieving developmental and non-developmental college students to determine if a correlation exists between personality and…