Increasing research findings are pointing out that using positive psychology and wellness strategies in counseling and therapy are helpful in fostering healthy human development (Snyder & Lopez, 2001). Positive psychology is addressing the importance of positive emotions, character traits, and features of enabling institutions such as the 'good…

In this enlightening volume, expert educator Robert Sylvester explains how adults can better understand teenagers through an engaging discussion of the adolescent brain. Readers will learn how to: (1) Mentor adolescents rather than attempt to manage and control them; (2) Nurture creativity, imagination, and individuality; and (3) Understand such…

Teenagers are perplexing, intriguing, and spirited creatures. In an attempt to discover the secrets to their thoughts and actions, parents have tried talking, cajoling, and begging them for answers. The result has usually been just more confusion. Light is being shed on these mysterious young adults. What was once thought to be hormones run amuck…

This paper addresses the differences between emotional and behavioral disorders, physical and health impairments and Traumatic brain Injury at the level of definitions, causes, and characteristics. It also describes specific and the most effective instructional strategies for students with these disabilities. It further suggests ways and means by…

Objective: To ascertain the association between pubertal stage and deliberate self-harm. Method: Cross-sectional survey of 12- to 15-year-olds in 300 secondary schools in the U.S. state of Washington in February-April 2002 and the Australian state of Victoria in June-August 2002. A total of 3,332 students in grades 7 and 9 provided complete data…

Evidence suggests that the neurological substrate of emotional behavior is lateralized by brain hemisphere early in life. A study examined the emotional expressions of preterm infants, some of whom had unilateral periventrical echodensities (PVE), as a model for addressing this issue. The study population of 25 preterm infants was videotaped at 3…

This study of Japanese and American exchange students focuses on the "perceived" rather than on the "real" impact of international education on one's own society and on the society hosting the foreign student. Thirty-four randomly selected American undergraduate students attending a Japanese university in Osaka, Japan and 34…

This review of the literature looks at writing disabilities in the context of special education services provided within regular classrooms. A definition of learning disabilities as well as a discussion of effects of left and right brain dominance and of the steps of the writing process begin the paper. Among the findings of the research synthesis…

This document presents a series of seven notebooks written to assist students at risk of becoming school dropouts due to learning problems. The notebooks explain what learning is, the student's role in the learning process, tools available to learners, how a particular student may learn best, which areas of learning need to be strengthened, and…

A modified, chronologically-based approach to the foreign language literature survey course integrates traditional elements of chronological organization with critical and concrete analysis of literary texts to increase the significance of the material to the liberal arts education. Research in higher education and research on left-right brain…

A study of differential brain hemisphere involvement in second language acquisition is reported. The study examined the idea that the right hemisphere is progressively more involved the later the second language is acquired. Various techniques for monitoring hemispheric functioning are described, especially the Evoked Potential (EP) technique. In…

People of different cultures differ in the cognitive style they use. Research reports that Mexican American children indicate a preference for field-sensitive cognitive strategies that are spatial-holistic, and middle class children a preference for field-independent strategies that are verbal-analytic. Brain research in hemisphericity appears to…

Acknowledging that ordering, spatial orientation, and synthesis are important properties in achieving clarity in writing, a study investigated the biological influences on students' writing processes and ways to help writers produce more coherent written products. Subjects, two males and four females ranging in age from 19 to 40, were tested using…

Recent technological advances in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology have unearthed structural and functional patterns in the brain that can be associated with severe reading disabilities. As a response, this paper examines several computer-driven technologies whose capabilities shed light on brain-related issues germane to reading, with the intent…

The purpose of this report is to distill curricular and testing implications of brain research. The report will focus on three topics. One topic is the possibility that brain lateralization--that is, the degree to which the two brain hemispheres specialize in different types of information processing--is an individual differences variable that…