Four steps help coaches implement a mental imagery program to improve their athletes' performance and emotional control: evaluate athletes' imaging ability; provide an imaging warm-up; integrate the senses; and use goal achievement strategies. The article notes that imagery skills must be maintained and practiced consistently. (SM)

The self-monitoring and generalization behaviors of eight preschool children were observed as they progressed in management programs for their developmental phonological disorders. Self-monitoring behaviors varied in type, frequency, and point of onset in relation to generalization data. Self-monitoring behaviors did not always nor only occur in…

Illustrates how teachers can build their students' social competence by integrating indiscrete social skills into the academic curriculum. States that the challenge for those who teach high-risk youth is to recognize and support the protective factors that build on strengths and enhance resiliency. (Author/MKA)

Study uses longitudinal growth curve modeling to examine the dynamic relations between refusal skills and alcohol use. The estimated means for alcohol use indicated that on average these adolescents increased their alcohol use by a factor of 140% over a four-year period. Refusal skill efficacy declined by a factor of 13% over the same time frame.…

Addresses the problem of students who want to do well but cannot manage the effects of failure or wrong actions. They have a conscience and experience guilt when they err, but rather than using mistakes as opportunities to rectify their behavior, they are overwhelmed by their inadequacy, which leads to self-defeating patterns of behavior.…

Negative attitudes students bring to class can obstruct teaching and learning. These attitudes can be traced to ideas of selfism advanced by modern philosophers. Discusses why students are not learning, examining sources of opposing values and how to recognize obstructive attitudes. Presents suggestions for handling negative attitudes that…

The father of the communitarian movement presents a Character Education Inventory that gives specific guidance on how to build character education into a school setting. Schools must continually take inventory of their own actions to ensure that what they are doing matches what they are instructing children to do. The inventory should include…

This study compared parent and teacher perceptions of 23 gifted children's (ages 6-12) social skills and the importance of different social skills. Teacher ratings of cooperation were significantly higher than parent ratings, and teachers valued cooperation highly. Parent ratings of assertion were significantly higher than teacher ratings, and…

A study used functional analyses to identify the social variables that maintained the inappropriate social-communicative behaviors of two adolescent students with mental retardation. Results were used to identify appropriate, functionally equivalent behaviors that the students were taught to self-monitor. The use of appropriate social skills was…

Discusses how conceptualizing anger control as a necessary survival skill for angry and aggressive youth is more productive than diagnosing these youth with labels like conduct disorders. Anger management programs should promote the ideas that angry persons need to trust others and that they have the ability to control their lives. (RJM)

This article provides two views of the software package "First Step KidTools". This computer program was designed to help elementary students use self-management skills and develop strategies for controlling their behavior. Goals and objectives of this program are outlined and information on how to obtain the program is provided. (CR)

A study involving boys (grades 4-7) who were highly gifted (n=18), low gifted (n=17), had learning disabilities (n=26), and were typical (n=26), found highly gifted boys exhibited levels of behavioral problems similar to those with learning disabilities, whereas low gifted boys had lower levels than boys with learning disabilities. (Contains…

Acknowledges that Halberstadt et al. have provided the field with a framework in which to organize ideas regarding affective social competence. Argues for modification of the model to stimulate thinking and further research, addressing points of modification in the areas of regulation as the core of the construct and self-factors influencing…

Three middle school students with mild/moderate mental retardation utilized three self-management interventions varying in amount of external assistance to increase time-on-task behaviors. Although the more externally assisted procedures resulted in the greatest improvement, the less intrusive procedures produced only slightly reduced effect,…

This study examined the effectiveness of self-operated auditory prompts when used to decrease the off-task and aberrant behaviors of two 19-year-old students with moderate mental retardation. Previous findings were replicated to demonstrate that stimulus control can be achieved through self-operated auditory prompts in school and community…