Social‐Information‐Processing Skills of Kindergarten Children with Developmental Learning Disabilities

The study examined the social‐information‐processing skills of kindergarten children with developmental learning disabilities (LD) utilizing Crick and Dodge's (1994) model of children's social adjustment as a theoretical framework. Participants consisted of 20 kindergarten children with developmental LD who attended three integrated kindergartens and 20 children without developmental LD from the same kindergartens. Participants were assessed on social‐information‐processing skills, feelings of loneliness, sense of coherence, and teachers' ratings of behavioral problems and positive resources. The results indicated that girls with developmental LD performed significantly lower on two information‐processing steps—the response decision and the enactment steps—than did girls without LD. Such differences were not found for boys. The results also showed that the social‐information‐processing skills of children with developmental LD were correlated with teachers' ratings.     

非言语型学习障碍儿童情绪面目表情认知特点研究

本研究通过向23名非言语型学习障碍儿童、23名言语型学习障碍儿童和46名普通儿童呈现情绪面目表情判别任务,就三组儿童情绪面目表情判别能力进行了对比研究,旨在探讨非言语型学习障碍儿童情绪认知的特点.结果表明:对于情绪面目表情判别能力,非言语型学习障碍儿童、言语型学习障碍儿童和普通儿童均随着年龄的增长而逐步提高,但是非占语型学习障碍儿童的发展要落后于其他两组儿童.在情绪面目表情的判别上,非言语型学习障碍儿童对一些消极的情绪面部表情如"悲伤"、"恐惧"、"愤怒"更为敏感.对于复杂面目表情如"厌恶"判别较为困难.     

Maintaining a Social‐Emotional Intervention and Its Benefits for Institutionalized Children

This article reports the maintenance of one of the largest interventions conducted in St. Petersburg (Russian Federation) orphanages for children birth to 4 years using regular caregiving staff. One orphanage received training plus structural changes, another training only, and a third business as usual. The intervention produced substantial differences between these institutions on the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory and on the Battelle Developmental Inventory scores for children. These institutional differences in HOME scores (N = 298) and Battelle scores for children (N = 357) departing the institutions for families in St. Petersburg and the United States were maintained for at least 6 years after the intervention project. This result may be associated with certain features of the intervention and activities conducted during the follow‐up interval.     

Social Competence of Learning Disabled Children: Cognitive and Emotional Aspects

The aim of the study was to investigate the structure of social competence among learning disabled children, as reported by themselves and their teachers, and the cognitive and emotional aspects that mediate its level. The sample consisted of 40 learning disabled children and 37 matched nondisabled children. Within Harter's competence model and Schaefer's spherical model, the learning disabled group demonstrated lower levels of competence and adjustment and a less mature concept of competence than did their peers. The social competence of the learning disabled children was accounted for by emotional and physical aspects of competence, similar to that found in younger and in children with an intellectual disability, whereas the social competence of the nondisabled peers was accounted for by a combination of academic, cognitive and self‐esteem aspects. Teachers rated the social competence of both groups of children as mediated by introversion and general competence. However, teachers added physical competence to the explanation of the learning disabled group's social competence, whereas they added task orientation to the explanation for the nondisabled group. Intervention planning should be geared toward increasing the social competence of LD children, through alerting teachers to their less mature self‐competence concept, with its special emphasis on nonacademic aspects.     

学习障碍超常儿童的研究进展

从特征、鉴别方法以及干预等方面综述了国外学习障碍超常儿童的研究进展.目前主要鉴别方法有智力分测验分析以及学业成绩和智力水平差异分析.日常生活评估和游戏评估是学龄前学习障碍超常儿童鉴别的有效方法.使用多种方法对多种能力进行评估可以提高鉴别准确性.在培养优势能力的过程中减少障碍是有效的教学方法.其他有效方法还包括形成知识网络结构和使用辅助工具.学习障碍超常儿童社会交往和情感需要值得关注.目前研究存在的主要问题有缺乏一致的学习障碍超常儿童能力剖面图,在主要鉴别方法上和超常儿童选拔的智商标准上也存在争议.文末探讨了对我国学习障碍超常儿童研究和教育的启示.     

学习不良儿童的情绪问题

情绪对人们的生活具有重要的影响,但是,学习不良儿童的情绪研究却被忽视了。实际上。学习不良儿童比一般儿童具有更多的情绪问题。文章介绍了有关学习不良儿童焦虑与抑郁情绪的研究。揭示了学习不良与情绪困扰之间的关系,并提出了改善学习不良儿童情绪问题的有效措施。     

学业不良儿童前瞻记忆的实验研究

本研究采用实验室双重任务范式,探讨了在有无外部提示线索两种条件下,不同认知方式的学业不良儿童和普通儿童在基于事件、时间、活动三种前瞻记忆任务上的表现.结果表明:(1)所有儿童在基于活动的前瞻记忆任务上的成绩最好,在基于事件和基于时间任务上的成绩较差;(2)在无外部提示线索条件下,学业不良儿童在基于时间的前瞻记忆任务上的表现较普通儿童差,有外部提示线索能够促进学业不良儿童在基于时间的前瞻记忆任务上的表现;(3)无论普通儿童还是学业不良儿童,场独立型儿童在基于事件的前瞻记忆任务上的表现较场依存型儿童好.     

Social‐Emotional Competence: An Essential Factor for Promoting Positive Adjustment and Reducing Risk in School Children

Social‐emotional competence is a critical factor to target with universal preventive interventions that are conducted in schools because the construct (a) associates with social, behavioral, and academic outcomes that are important for healthy development; (b) predicts important life outcomes in adulthood; (c) can be improved with feasible and cost‐effective interventions; and (d) plays a critical role in the behavior change process. This article reviews this research and what is known about effective intervention approaches. Based on that, an intervention model is proposed for how schools should enhance the social and emotional learning of students in order to promote resilience. Suggestions are also offered for how to support implementation of this intervention model at scale.     

数学障碍儿童抑制能力的发展性研究

本研究采用数值-大小干扰(magnitude-size Stroop)范式,探讨了不同年级数学障碍儿童和普通儿童抑制能力的差异.结果发现:(1)两组儿童在刺激冲突条件下的反应时显著长于刺激一致条件下的反应时,刺激冲突条件下的正确率显著低于刺激一致条件的正确率;(2)儿童在需要抑制能力参与的刺激冲突条件下的反应时随年级升高呈递减趋势;(3)数学障碍儿童只在需要抑制能力参与的刺激冲突条件下的正确率显著低于普通儿童,而在不需要抑制能力参与的刺激中性条件和刺激一致条件下两组之间没有显著差异.本研究认为,数学障碍儿童抑制能力发展迟缓是数学障碍产生的原因之一.     

Social and Emotional Functioning of Children with Learning Disabilities: Does Special Education Placement Make a Difference?

Children with learning disabilities in four types of special education settings were compared in terms of social acceptance, number of friends, quality of relationship with best friends, self‐concept, loneliness, depression, social skills, and problem behaviors. Two of the placements (In‐Class Support and Resource Room) were for children with mild to moderate learning disabilities and involved between 30 and 90 minutes of special education per school day. The other two placements (Inclusion Class and Self‐Contained Special Education Class) were designated for children with severe learning disabilities and involved at least a half‐day of special education. Children in the more inclusive placements had more positive social and emotional functioning. Children receiving In‐Class Support were more accepted by peers, had higher self‐perceptions of mathematics competence, and fewer problem behaviors than children receiving Resource Room Support. Children in Inclusion Classes had more satisfying relationships with their best school friends, were less lonely, and had fewer problem behaviors than children in Self‐Contained Special Education Classes.     

Resilience Model Among Individuals with Learning Disabilities: Proximal and Distal Influences

Development may be conceptualized as a process of repeated resilient reintegration, and resilience research is expected to identify the complex transactions and processes among internal and external (risk and protective) factors involved in that process. Through presenting a critical review of related research, Wong's article demonstrates the ability of youngsters with learning disabilities (LD) to challenge their difficulties. Wong's perspective helps clarify current conceptual inconsistencies and provides constructive directions for future inquiries in LD resilience research. The present commentary emphasizes two mediating factors within the third wave of resilience research: the critical role of emotions as inner sources of energy and the importance of reciprocity in relations with both adults and peers.     

Pathways to School Readiness: Executive Functioning Predicts Academic and Social–Emotional Aspects of School Readiness

The current study specified the extent to which hot and cool aspects of executive functioning predicted academic and social‐emotional indicators of school readiness. It was unique in focusing on positive aspects of social–emotional readiness, rather than problem behaviors. One hundred four 3–5‐year‐old children completed tasks measuring executive functioning, social–emotional readiness, academic readiness, and vocabulary. As expected, age predicted executive functioning components and social–emotional readiness. Moreover, working memory and inhibitory control directly predicted academic readiness, whereas delay of gratification predicted social–emotional readiness. Working memory and inhibitory control predicted delay of gratification, consistent with the notion that simpler executive functions may set the stage for more complex executive functions. Interestingly, social–emotional readiness predicted academic readiness. These findings confirm that hot and cool aspects of executive functioning are related to social–emotional and academic school readiness.     

Educating Children with Learning Disabilities in Africa

The increase in the number of slow learners and children with learning disabilities in schools in Africa has become a major issue and concern. The situation is reflected in various school‐leaving examinations, where an average of 30 percent of the results are below average or failures each year. Although there are no statistical records available in most African countries on the number of children and youth with learning disabilities, it is believed that about 8 percent of the students in school are experiencing learning difficulties in the classroom. Diverse factors contribute to the large number of school difficulties, including overcrowded classrooms, poverty, health issues, shortages of experienced teachers, traditional beliefs, lack of teaching materials, school expectations, and motivational issues. I examine the state of education for students with learning difficulties in Africa, focusing especially on Botswana but also including information from other countries, and consider the concept, prevalence, causes, provision of services, and difficulties in providing effective services for children with learning disabilities.     

Source Monitoring in Children with Learning Disabilities

The results of a recent study by Lorsbach, Melendez and Carroll‐Maher (1991) suggest that children with learning disabilities may possess a general deficit in remembering the source of their verbal memories. The purpose of the present study was to examine further whether children with learning disabilities possess a general deficit in source monitoring and whether such a deficit is independent of performance on a recognition memory task. Children with learning disabilities and nondisabled children were presented with a series of incomplete sentences once or twice in either a listen‐listen (external source monitoring) condition or a think‐listen (reality monitoring) condition. Following the presentation of the study‐list, subjects were presented with the terminal nouns of the preceding sentences and asked to make old/new recognition judgments, as well as source attributions. Although children with learning disabilities were deficient in both forms of source monitoring, they did not differ from nondisabled children in their recognition performance. The results suggest that children with learning disabilities possess a general deficit in verbal source monitoring.     

How Children Construct Views of Themselves: A Social‐Developmental Perspective

As they grow up, children construct views of themselves and their place in the world, known as their self‐concept. This topic has often been addressed by social psychologists (studying how the self‐concept is influenced by social contexts) and developmental psychologists (studying how the self‐concept changes over time). Yet, relatively little is known about the origins of the self‐concept. This article calls for research that bridges social and developmental psychology to illuminate this important issue. Adopting such a social‐developmental approach, the current special section shows that children construct their self‐concept based on the social relationships they have, the feedback they receive, the social comparisons they make, and the cultural values they endorse. These findings underline the deeply social nature of self‐development.     

Quality of Life of Children with Learning Disabilities: A Comparison of Self‐Reports and Proxy Reports

This study aimed to explore how children with learning disabilities (LD) perceive their quality of life (QoL) and to compare self‐reports and proxy reports regarding their QoL. Children with LD, their typically developing peers, their parents and teachers responded to the child, parent, and teacher forms of KINDL^R Questionnaire for Measuring Health‐Related Quality of Life (Ravens‐Sieberer & Bullinger, 1998). Findings showed that children with LD reported significantly lower QoL scores than those reported by typically developing peers. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and t‐test results showed that agreement between child reports and parent‐proxy reports was either low or moderate on each QoL dimension. Findings of the study may be used to raise awareness regarding the social and educational needs of children with LD in Turkey.     

Promoting Academic and Social‐Emotional School Readiness: The Head Start REDI Program

Forty‐four Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to enriched intervention (Head Start REDI—Research‐based, Developmentally Informed) or “usual practice” conditions. The intervention involved brief lessons, “hands‐on” extension activities, and specific teaching strategies linked empirically with the promotion of: (a) social‐emotional competencies and (b) language development and emergent literacy skills. Take‐home materials were provided to parents to enhance skill development at home. Multimethod assessments of three hundred and fifty‐six 4‐year‐old children tracked their progress over the course of the 1‐year program. Results revealed significant differences favoring children in the enriched intervention classrooms on measures of vocabulary, emergent literacy, emotional understanding, social problem solving, social behavior, and learning engagement. Implications are discussed for developmental models of school readiness and for early educational programs and policies.     

The Effects of Inattentive Responding on Construct Validity Evidence When Measuring Social–Emotional Learning Competencies

Self‐report inventories are commonly administered to measure social‐emotional learning competencies related to college and career readiness. Inattentive responding can negatively impact the validity of interpreting individual results and the accuracy of construct validity evidence. This study applied nine methods of detecting insufficient effort responding (IER) to a social‐emotional learning assessment. Individual methods identified between 0.9% and 20.3% of respondents as potentially exhibiting IER. Removing flagged respondents from the data resulted in negligible or small improvements in criterion‐related validity, coefficient alpha, concurrent validity, and confirmatory factor analysis model‐data fit. Implications for future validity studies and the operational use of IER detection for social–emotional learning assessments are discussed.     

学习困难儿童同时性加工特点研究

学习困难儿童同时性加工水平低下;性别对同时性加工任务没有显著影响;综合学业成就与同时性加工效率呈显著正相关.分析发现注意的缺陷和计划性的不足可能使学习困难儿童无法将自身的三个动态联系的机能系统有效地协调起来,无法根据经验作出正确的反应;而教育缺陷的积累可能也是导致其同时性加工水平低下的原因之一.