This qualitative study used focus groups to explore student perspectives on family involvement in the transition from school to adult life. Four focus groups, including students with learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, and mild mental retardation, demonstrated the importance to students of family input and support.…

Describes the implementation and supports the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral group counseling game, the Social Skills Game (Berg, 1989) in enhancing social skills, as measured by the Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment, of third- to sixth-grade children with learning disabilities. (LKS)

Curriculum design principles developed by the National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators (NCITE) are recommended to evaluate and enhance basal reading programs for learning-disabled students. These principles provide a framework for fortifying instruction in ways that mediate difficulties that students encounter in phonological awareness,…

This response to five case studies and reactions to them finds agreement that special education in inclusive programs is, by design, no longer "special." It urges: (1) adding resources to strengthen the continuum of services; (2) special educators to join general educators to re-create schools; (3) instructional focus on individual needs; and (4)…

Reports a study of a gifted and a learning-disabled sixth grader and their constructions of and responses to their physical education teacher's grading practices. Interviews indicated they experienced similar emotional reactions to the physical education environment (frustration and disappointment over their grades and desire to eliminate grades…

High-risk children aged 8 through 12 completed the Reynolds Child Depression Scale prior to and following participation in a therapeutic camp program. When compared to nonparticipants with similar learning disabilities or emotional disorders, the camp group demonstrated a significant decrease in level of depression following their camping…

This literature review focuses on methodologies, instruments, and findings from research on the instructional contexts of elementary and secondary students with learning disabilities. The review covers the time that students were engaged in different activities in different settings, interactions between teachers and students, and students'…

This paper presents a model for the full integration of children with severe speech-language problems into the regular classroom. It describes characteristics of this population, structure and roles of the collaborative teaching teams, the critical importance of administrative and parental support, and the active involvement of the staffing team.…

The Interactive Teaching Project was designed to test an instructional model to help students with learning disabilities comprehend content area concepts. This paper describes the theoretical model and the effective interactive teaching and learning strategies used, including semantic feature analysis, semantic mapping, and semantic/syntactic…

This paper discusses dynamic/interactive approaches to psychological assessment based on the concept of induced change as a research tactic. Studies are reviewed showing how interactive assessment has yielded new knowledge in psychopathology; neuropsychology; learning disabilities; intelligence testing (in normal, deaf, and immigrant children);…

Instruction types and amounts were observed for 30 educably mentally retarded, 30 learning-disabled, 32 emotionally/behaviorally disabled, and 30 nonhandicapped students in grades 2-4. The groups were compared on time allocation, grouping arrangements, student responding, qualitative nature of classroom instruction, and the home learning…

This article offers a profile of Dr. Andy Chen, an individual from Taiwan with learning disabilities who became an assistant professor of accounting at Northeastern Illinois University. The interview follows his progress through school, college, military service, and postgraduate work and describes learning strategies he developed to deal with his…

Six students (ages 12-14) with learning disabilities received either cognitive or metacognitive strategy instruction for mathematical problem solving, followed by instruction in the complementary component. Results indicated that cognitive and metacognitive strategies were more effective than either cognitive or metacognitive strategy instruction…

A nationwide survey of 510 postsecondary learning disability (LD) service providers revealed that an educationally diverse group of professionals is developing programs and providing direct instruction to students with learning disabilities. Service providers are encouraged to utilize interventions that lead to self-determination and independence…

The seven chapters of this issue focus on technical qualities of performance assessments and report the findings of systematic empirical inquiries. They add to the body of research that shows that performance assessment, although time consuming and expensive, merits the serious attention of educators. (SLD)