This study aimed to evaluate the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS: Laugeson et al. in "J Autism Dev Disord" 39(4):596-606, 2009). PEERS focuses on improving friendship quality and social skills among adolescents with higher-functioning ASD. 58 participants aged 11-16 years-old were randomly assigned to…

We examined the impact of simultaneous bottom-up visual influences and meaningful social stimuli on attention orienting in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Relative to typically-developing age and sex matched participants, children with ASDs were more influenced by bottom-up visual scene information regardless of whether…

Social neuroscience research has resulted in changing views of the theory of mind (ToM) construct. Theory of mind is no longer viewed as a unitary construct, but rather as a multidimensional construct comprising cognitive and affective ToM and interpersonal and intrapersonal ToM, each of which has differing neurophysiological/neuroanatomical…

This mixed methods study examined changes in self-reported multicultural competence and distress reactions of 32 counselor trainees engaged in service learning. Whereas 3 trainees significantly increased in self-reported multicultural competence, 5 significantly decreased. Trainees who significantly increased in multicultural competence reported…

Due to impairments in social interactions and communication, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have a need for effective social skills training programs. However, many programs fail due to a lack of acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of target skills. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and…

Taking part of the article's title from the salutary writings of Michael Fullan (2007), this article endorses 'the primacy of personal contact' or the fundamental importance of relationship in teaching and learning. It argues four premises, namely. that relationship is more important to teaching than technical skills; that given the evolving…

Teachers help promote the social and emotional learning skills students need to be college and career ready, such as collaborating with others, monitoring their own behavior, and making responsible decisions. Social-emotional learning (SEL) is critical to the introduction of college and career readiness standards. To bridge the connection between…

The current study examined the effect of empathy on friendship quality in the context of dyadic same-sex friendships, and how such an effect might be mediated by interpersonal competence. A special version of the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was used to examine this hypothesis in 146 same-sex friend dyads in 10th grade. Results…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a peer-mediated intervention on the generalization of acquired social skills for high-functioning youth with social competence deficits. The literature underscores the importance of providing opportunities for students with social competence deficits to engage in social interactions across…

What do K-12 schools need to do to prepare their students for adult success? This was the question that originally catalyzed the standards-and-accountability movement some 30 years ago, though it seems somehow to have gotten lost. Today the question merits revisiting, because addressing it makes a strong case for taking an integrated approach to…

This reflection piece presents some of the lessons learned from an initiative at New York University (NYU) that could be used by other student affairs professionals in other parts of the world, including Africa. The vision and motivation to embark on such a path have been inspired, in part, by three major developments in higher education. The…

Problem behavior of 52 children with Williams syndrome ages 6 to 17 years old was examined based on both parent and teacher report. Generally good inter-rater agreement was found. Common areas of problem behavior based both on parent and teacher report included attention problems, anxiety difficulties, repetitive behaviors (e.g., obsessions,…

Writing status-congruent emails is a skill that requires high pragmatic competence and awareness of the politeness conventions and email etiquette that need to be followed. Planning and composing such emails pose a greater challenge for EFL learners who use English in "lingua franca" communication (ELF), as they not only often struggle…

After Gardner had introduced the Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory, many researchers tried to find out the possibilities of applying this theory in the education domain. Moreover, the effects of different kinds of athletic applications on intelligence development within the framework of this theory have also been under investigation. This study…

Research Findings: This study examined the learning effects of collaborative group work under heterogeneous group composition among 5-year-old children, especially in terms of their social skills. To this end, the study utilized an experimental research design wherein 3 groups of differently composed dyads and a group of students who worked alone…