Compares at-risk students who reported receiving no or low social support with those who reported receiving an average amount with respect to perceptions of their neighborhood, school, peer group, family, and health and well-being. Discusses results and implications of the results so that school social workers can better prepare themselves to work…

Fifty-five 3rd-grade students, 27 of them with learning disabilities, were interviewed to determine their perceptions of grouping formats in reading instruction, with emphasis on small, mixed-ability groups. Students perceived that there are definite benefits and drawbacks to working in this format, including pacing, embarrassment, and working…

Comments on research related to current controversies in the education of students with emotional and behavioral disorders, including postmodernism, prevention, full inclusion, socialization by peers, and the future of research on social development. (Author/DB)

Tips are provided for implementing successful inclusion programs for students with disabilities, including providing continuing, consistent support with structured staff-development activities; eliciting parental collaboration in all aspects of the inclusion effort; enhancing peer involvement, and facilitating classroom diversity by making…

This study examined the context and interaction variables associated with communication reciprocity with five adolescents with physical and/or cognitive disabilities using augmentative/alternative communication (AAC) systems and their nondisabled peers. Clusters of context/interaction patterns related to more balanced communication were…

Mentoring students via programs such as HOSTS (Helping One Student to Succeed) helps kids avoid or tackle problems associated with substance abuse, pregnancy, gangs, and academic and social failure. A Dupont-sponsored program in Wilmington, Delaware, has helped students improve relationships with peers and adults. (MLH)

A study involving 40 typical preschoolers and their mothers found they talked more about children with physical disabilities than those with Down syndrome during a storytelling task, and that children's comments about children with physical disabilities were positively related to teachers' ratings of children's interactions with classmates with…

Proposes and briefly discusses several hypotheses concerning the unique developmental status of peer relations in the first three years of life. Analyzes the meaning of individual differences in very early peer competencies. Suggests that developmental differences in peer relations might translate into hypotheses regarding early individual…

Examined the balance between connectedness to, and independence from, mother, father, and best friend in 9- to 14-year olds. Found that children reporting a preoccupied or avoidant stance toward their mother displayed increased social impairment in the peer group over time. Stances toward mother, father, and best friend were related. Children…

Identifies conceptual and methodological strengths of Hawley and Little's article and commends the pedagogical value of the approach taken. Notes that questions still unanswered concern the validity of adult caregiver perceptions of social dominance, the relationship between competition hierarchies and hierarchies based on directed agonism, and…

Interviewed mothers of preschoolers with special needs about beliefs regarding social-skills development. Found that mothers viewed their children as below average in social competence and perceived social skills as difficult to teach or change. Belief in internal causation was more frequent than external, with internal attribution negatively…

Camps developing inclusive programs can incorporate ideas and strategies from a successful inclusive recreational program in Hong Kong. Strategies focus on participants' structured interactions, extensive personal contact, joint participation, equal status, cooperative interdependence, communication, and age-appropriate behaviors. Lessons learned…

Reports findings on changes in adolescent-crowd orientations using national data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Categorizes high school students into five prototypical peer-crowd orientations at tenth and twelfth grade. Illuminates the change in students' peer crowd orientation by examining individual and relationship…

Examined orientation of high school students' peer groups to formal (school-oriented) and informal (peer-oriented) reward systems. Investigated factors that influence change in peer-group orientation over time, and demonstrated how changes by the individual and changes in peer-group orientation predicted change in ego identity. Demonstrated how…

Examined correlates of aggression in highly stressed urban children in second and third grade and again in third through fifth grade. Found that difficult temperament and lack of parental warmth related to aggression in early grades; learning problems and poor social skills related to aggression at both times. Early aggression predicted later…