Five matched groups of 15 children (ages 8-13) were compared to determine whether behavioral subgroups of children with learning disabilities (LD) form different beliefs regarding causes of their achievement-related successes and failures. The achievement attributions of subjects were heterogeneous and related to presence and type of behavior…

Analysis of the discrepancy between performance of 121 tenth-grade students in reading aloud from English and science texts resulted in a group of 33 students with general deficits and 6 students with content-specific deficits. Students in the content-specific group benefited more from study of the text than did students in the general deficit…

Four expert high school special education resource teachers were observed providing classroom instruction. Content analysis of postobservation interview transcripts was used to identify the presence of 124 reflective practice indicators in the subjects' instructional decisions: 49 for personal responsibility, 39 for testing, and 36 for problem…

This study analyzed 1,468 special education directors' perceptions regarding personnel needs, quality of preparation, training needs, and administrative policies/practices for mainstreaming students with disabilities. Administrators with special education teaching experience or course work had higher levels of mainstreamed students. The highest…

This review of legislation, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and court cases concludes that IDEA does not compel placement of students with disabilities in regular classrooms but, rather, fully supports the continuum of placements. Principles extrapolated from these cases offer guidance to special educators making…

Comparison of hearing (n=222) and deaf (n=217) young adults on employment, independent living, and social experience outcomes found that the hearing group was generally more successful than deaf persons from mainstream or residential schools. Gender differences did not uniformly favor men. Suggestions for improving transition programs for the deaf…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of facilitated communication over a 15-week period with preschoolers, elementary-age children, and secondary-age youth (total n=18) with autism and their teachers who served as their facilitators. Students were unable to correctly respond to questions for which the facilitator lacked answers. (Author/JDD)

Three formats of maplike displays containing historical event and location information were presented to 72 middle school students with learning disabilities (LD). Although recall of locations was significantly greater than recall of event information in all conditions, both mnemonic and elaborative encoding improved recall. (Author/DB)

New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) suggest that there were about 851,000 children with disabilities, birth to 5, during the 1991-92 school year. Of these, 80% had received developmental services. Most likely to be unserved or underserved were children from low socioeconomic status families…

Comparison of 19 national data collection programs found significant variability in the disability categories used. Discussion focuses on issues related to improving disability identification in large-scale data collection programs and the effects of these issues on reporting policy-relevant information. (Author/DB)

This review of 38 studies on spelling interventions designed for students with learning disabilities who are poor spellers found that nearly all "systematic" techniques can be effectively employed. Study interventions consisted of four types: instructional procedures (such as imitation modeling and analogy training), computer-assisted instruction,…

This meta-analysis of peer rating sociometric research on students with learning disabilities (LD) examined 17 studies. Results demonstrated that LD students have considerably lower sociometric status compared to nondisabled peers. The influence of ratee gender, rater gender, grade level, research design, and sociometric scale type is examined.…

This study, involving 40 preschool children with speech/language disorders, compared the costs and effectiveness of a home parent training intervention and a clinic-based, low parent involvement intervention. Longitudinal effects were comparable, supporting the feasibility of offering options to parents and the need for broadly trained…

This paper reviews research on observational learning, including model characteristics and observers' responses, vicarious reinforcement as implicit punishment, vicarious effects on students with problem behavior, observers' other characteristics and vicarious effects, and aggression and vicarious processes. Regular class placement of students…

A survey of 195 local education agencies was conducted in 2 Federal Judicial Circuits, 1 with extensive litigation history regarding extended school year services for special education students and 1 with minimal court involvement. The survey found little consistency concerning eligibility criteria, methods for determining regression/recoupment,…