Addresses the various issues associated with friendship and conversational skills in youth with externalizing and internalizing behavior disorders. The need for assessment techniques and intervention programs to encompass measures and training strategies targeting conversational skills and the type and nature of the dyadic relationship are…

Discusses major advances and issues in social-skills research with adolescents, including efforts to facilitate treatment adherence, social validity, and generalization of interventions. Directions for further improvement of social-skills intervention technology are also discussed. (Author/CR)

Two interventions (environmental modification and adult prompting) were evaluated for promoting conversations between three preschoolers with and six without disabilities. Three conditions were used: classroom baseline, theme boxes, and system of least prompts. Use of the system of least prompts produced increases in rates of conversation, turns…

Outlines character education from the constructivist perspective, discussing Piaget's research on children's reasoning about moral rules, which offers a framework for examining education. Examines parallel teacher/child relationships, which affect moral development, and presents examples of how teachers can create cooperative interpersonal…

Predictors of alcohol consumption were investigated across age and sex among junior and senior high school students (N=1,942). The dominant predictor for young boys was whether their friends drink; for girls it was related to interpersonal disorder. Peer pressure was important for older girls and continued dominant for boys. (EMK)

Suggests that there are far more identified children with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream secondary schools and colleges than there were a decade ago. Offers research-based educational strategies for developing language and communication skills, social and affective information processing, social communication skills, and motivation for…

Describes a professional-development program to address the social needs of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) in general-education classrooms. The program is based not only on current knowledge of students with AH/HD, but also on professional development needs of teachers. Program components are described. (Author/CR)

This article is a collection of tips, hints, and practices which have been found effective in teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders and in enabling teachers to work with these students more productively. Topics addressed include preventing violence, teaching cooperation, teaching compensatory behaviors, teaching social skills,…

This article from 1855 discusses the validity of signing for individuals with deafness and the need to develop an instinctive "language of gestures" to enable them to profit by the experiences of others and to share in social communion. The need for sign language to communicate religious instruction is emphasized. (CR)

A study compared the effects of different intervention approaches designed to promote peer-related social competence of 83 preschool children with disabilities. Analyses indicated that the peer-mediated condition had the greatest and most sustained effect on children's participation in social interaction and on the quality of interaction.…

Describes four characteristics that might be associated with the optimal use of peer-mediated procedures in integrated preschools: comprehensive in the skills and activities that they address, intensive or large scale in applications, practical and acceptable to teachers, and effective for producing intended outcomes. (Author/CR)

Three groups of third-grade students classified as either Externals (n=30), Internalizers (n=55), or Controls (n=96) were contrasted on 19 measures in social and academic domains. Results indicate large differences between externalizing and internalizing groups compared with controls; however, both externalizing and internalizing groups had…

Describes three Oregon school-community programs that improve student attitude and behavior: community-service learning projects for previously disruptive students, after-school programs that provide exciting group activities for students who maintain decent grades and stay out of trouble, and adult mentoring and group activities for high-risk…

Describes the development of an instructional model encouraging collaborative learning in graduate business education. The approach evolved from a survey of professionals concerning the interpersonal and individual skills needed for effectiveness in graduate school, the job market, and society, and resulted in a revised curriculum. (MSE)

Examines identity development of African-American students in both the interpersonal and the ideological domain. Results show that most of the students were engaged in the identity-exploration process. Results for the interpersonal domain were similar to those for the ideological domain. (Author/GCP)