The methods of 27 studies focusing on toy play among young children with mental retardation were reviewed. Considerable variability was noted with respect to sample characteristics, contextual parameters, and type of measurement. Researchers frequently neglected to provide potentially useful methodological information. Suggestions for future…

Calls for a new vision of child welfare, indicates schools' role, distinguishes between education and schooling, advocates new collaborative systems for children and families, and identifies implications meriting attention and action. Aims to initiate an expanded dialog around children's and families' rights and revisit ways to establish caring…

Exhorts 1994 University of San Diego graduates to invest their talents in serving the common good, whatever their chosen professions. Professionals have the capacity for welcoming complexity, acquiring information without being overwhelmed by it, planning without being controlled by their plans, discovering relationships, and creating meaning from…

Summarizes year one of a two-year study of peer harassment in eight New York State schools. Most adolescents find school a harassing experience. Three types of students report being harassed: girls viewed as unattractive or unstylish dressers, physically well-developed girls, and non-macho boys. Educators must intervene to create more caring…

Considers feminist thought about the maternal relation as a possibly significant contribution to curriculum studies. Reframes feminists' critique of the maternal as an analysis of a hidden curriculum in child rearing. Identifies descriptive, negative, problematic, normative, and critical senses of the maternal within this critique that influence…

Examines changes in parental participation over a 2-year period in 10 accelerated Louisiana schools. At first, parents were unwelcome in nine of these schools. The most fundamental factor was changing teacher and administrator attitudes toward parents of poor children, which fostered the emergence of a more meaningful parent role. (13 references)…

Argues that the goal of improving student outcomes in urban school districts is insufficient. Urban school reform should be tied to efforts to enhance community development. If children and educators feel unsafe in schools, then increased student achievement is virtually meaningless. Profiles the "City of New Orleans" Empowerment Zone strategy.…

This study, involving 125 female Irish elementary students, found that girls in a school which had 2 classes of students with moderate mental disabilities had more prosocial attitudes towards children with disabilities than girls in a school which did not have students with mental disabilities. Intervention resulted in a maturing of the children's…

This study examined the attitudes of 34 Greek elementary special education students toward their teachers, lessons, parents, schools, and feelings of difference. Comparisons with studies of British and New Zealand children indicate that the Greek students were generally satisfied with their educational experience, and the Greek special education…

This pilot study describes how four adults with profound mental retardation used picture telephones to communicate. The findings refute the belief that mental retardation and advanced technology are incompatible and suggest that picture telephones may become a necessary support mechanism to provide individuals with mental retardation access to…

This article presents a brief overview of the literature pertaining to the use of objects of reference by people with deaf-blindness. It suggests that the establishment of nonsymbolic object use in appropriate routines may facilitate the acquisition of the symbolic use of objects. (MDM)

This paper outlines the manner in which education is provided for children with intellectual disabilities in China, focusing on programs offered in two special primary schools and a special kindergarten. The paper concludes that there appears to be a very large group of school-aged children who remain unserved by the educational system, especially…

This paper questions the claim that able-bodied individuals cannot understand the experience of disability and that disablism is a socially created form of oppression. It examines social constructivist and social creativist views of disability and argues against the social creativist view as the only fruitful perspective concerning disability.…

This article presents the results of three studies in the learning-potential testing of children from minority groups: (1) Test of Children's Learning Ability; (2) Learning Efficiency Battery; and (3) Learning Potential Test for Ethnic Minorities. It concludes that, although the development of culture-free tests is impossible, it is possible to…

This article provides an overview of special education in Germany, focusing on its historical development, basic structure and administration, regional differences in special education provision, the decline of the special school system, and the increasing reorientation of special education toward the ordinary schools. (MDM)