Discusses the application of Britain's National Literacy Strategy for pupils with special educational needs, especially the additional guidance recently published which suggests ways of including these students in the "literacy hour" or conducting "parallel" groups. Continuing questions raised by teachers of students with severe or profound and…

This award-winning article describes a research project which evaluated use of "social stories" with primary-grade children who have autism. Social stories are written to describe social situations the child finds difficult and include descriptive sentences which describe the situation, perspective sentences which explain the reactions of others,…

Analyzes an interview with an adult male prisoner who was labeled as "maladjusted" in school. Discussion of the concept of "maladjustment," models of learning, and consequences of assessment is followed by excerpts from the interview which show the negative effects of this label on the child's developing identity and general outlook. (DB)

Describes a survey of services provided by schools for pupils with learning difficulties and challenging behavior in Britain. Analysis of the responses of 80 teachers indicated a need for in-class staff support, curriculum access, and additional facilities and resources for such pupils. The value of teacher collaboration in solving problems is…

This research project examined the interpersonal relationships between 18 children with chronic and/or deteriorating conditions and their parents and teachers in Scotland. Results support the urgent need for more initial and inservice staff development to enable the inclusive education of children with serious medical conditions. Also stressed is…

Describes a training program for classroom assistants which focused on development of reflective skills. The program used short video recordings of classroom situations followed by group discussion. A framework for evaluating the video situations and discussing them is also offered. (DB)

This study of multi-professional collaboration in special schools in Britain included the development of a collaboration scale based on professional descriptions of collaborative activities which fell into three broad categories: planning activities, sharing activities, and goal-achieving activities. Respondents generally reported a fairly high…

Addresses the problems resulting from the frequent co-occurrence of dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The importance of identifying comorbidity before planning and implementing educational programs is stressed and implications for diagnosis and intervention are drawn. (DB)

This study assessed the educational attainments of pupils, ages 7 to 16, at a special school for children with emotional and/or behavior disorders (EBD) in England. Results support previous research indicating that children with EBD have major problems in literacy and numeracy. Implications for teaching approaches in special schools, for early…

Offers a critical response to the British Teacher Training Agency's two consultation documents on special-educational-needs-specialist teachers. The critique addresses the proposed standards, the definition of a specialist teacher, the value of standards, effective services, core standards, the deficit model of specialist standards, and delivery…

This study examined use of group-response technology (GRT) to gather responses of 26 students during instruction in a college course. Classroom observation data indicated no differences in engagement between those who used GRT and those using journals; however, GRT use provided the instructor with real-time data about student learning. (Author/CR)

Discusses the design, development, and teaching of two graduate-level special-education courses online using audio streaming technology. The teamwork involved in developing the system is described and suggestions are offered on how to engage instructional and technical developers in the creation of online instruction. (Author/CR)

Two preservice master's-level courses in early-childhood special education were taught twice across two academic years through distance learning using two-way interactive television (ITV). Results indicated the 103 student participants generally rated ITV as acceptable but most would choose traditional course delivery. Factors crucial to success…

A survey of 516 family members examined assistive-technology use by students with mental retardation. Findings indicate that the number of students who could benefit from devices but did not have access to them exceeded the number who actually had devices. Barriers to device utilization are discussed. (Author/CR)

This article reports on a British study that examined the connotations of several special education labels (abnormality, deficit, impairment, disability, learning difficulties, and special educational needs) to experienced teachers, trainee teachers, and trainee educational psychologists (total N=220). All three groups rated "special education…