Establishing word-object relations: a first step

This work explores how infants in the early phases of acquiring language come to establish an initial mapping between objects and their labels. If infants are biased to attend more to objects in the presence of language, that could help them to note word-object object pairings. To test this, a first study compared how long 18 10-14-month-old infants looked at unfamiliar toys when labeling phrases accompanied their presentation, versus when no labeling phrases were provided. As predicted, labeling the toys increased infants' attention to them. A second study examined whether the presence of labeling phrases increased infants' attention to objects over and above what pointing, a powerful nonlinguistic method for directing infants' attention, could accomplish on its own. 22 infants from 2 age groups (10-14- and 17-20-month-olds) were shown pairs of unfamiliar toys in 2 situations: (a) in a pointing alone condition, where the experimenter pointed a number of times at one of the toys, and (b) in a labeling + pointing condition, where the experimenter labeled the target toy while pointing to it. While the pointing occurred, infants looked just as long at the target toy whether or not it was labeled. During a subsequent play period in which no labels were uttered, however, infants gazed longer at the target toys that had been labeled than at those that had not. Thus language can increase infants' attention to objects beyond the time that labeling actually occurs. These studies do not pinpoint which aspects of labeling behavior contribute to the attentional facilitation effect that was observed. In any case, however, this tendency for language to sustain infants' attention to objects may help them learn the mappings between words and objects.     

Behavior problems in blind children and youth: A prevalence study

The Behavior Problem Checklist (Quay & Peterson, 1979) was completed by classroom teachers for 104 children and youth (64 boys and 40 girls) at a state residential school for the blind to determine the prevalence of problem behavior. Results were compared to earlier studies of behavior problems of nonhandicapped children and of two groups of hearing-impaired children, one living at home and attending a community program and a second group attending a state residential school. Results were more similar to those obtained with the hearing-impaired children in the residential setting than to either the nonhandicapped or the hearing-impaired living at home. Comparisons by sex failed to find statistically significant differences.     

The focus of responsibility for education of the severely and profoundly retarded

The current concern for the extension of a free public education to the severely and profoundly retarded has precipitated a general assumption among many persons that the public schools will play a major role in providing educational services for this population. In view of the past failures of programs for the mildly (EMR) and moderately (TMR) retarded in the public schools, the authors advocate a new concept in delivery systems and teacher training that more appropriately reflects the needs of the severely and profoundly retarded.     

Introductory courses in research

The purpose of this article is to describe the ways in which intending teachers in the United Kingdom are acquainted with the principles and methods of educational research. Two points must be emphasized at the outset. The first is that the discussion is intentionally limited to the content of courses of initial training; the more intensive treatment of the topics under review that can undertaken in advanced courses of in-service training is not considered. The second point to be noted is that the institutions-colleges of education and university departments of education-that are responsible for initial training in the United Kingdom are free to fashion their own curricula and methods of instruction. The absence of any central control or direction in these respects leads to a wide variety of practices and, indeed, the content of the initial training programmes in a particular college is determined, to a considerable extent, by the experience, qualifications and predilections of the members of its staff. The account that follows refers to the procedures adopted by some of the best qualified and most farsighted of those responsible for the training of teachers. Alfred Yates, formerly Senior Research Officer at the National Foundation for Educational Research, is at present Senior Tutor in the Departmen of Educational Studies at Oxford University. His educational writings includeAdmission to Grammar Schools, Grouping in Education, An Introduction to Educational Measurement (with D. A. Pidgeon), andThe Role of Research in Educational Change