Beliefs About Social Skills Among Mothers of Preschoolers with Special Needs

Mothers of preschoolers with special needs (N = 280) were interviewed about their beliefs regarding the development of social skills. Children were viewed as below average in social competence, and social skills were perceived to be very important to develop but difficult to teach or change. Indirect, rather than direct strategies for helping children develop social skills were suggested most frequently. A belief in internal causation was more frequent than external; as hypothesized, internal attributions were negatively associated with the children's social-skills and adaptive abilities. Both internal attributions and low social-skills ability contributed independently to parenting stress.     

In-depth analysis of handwriting curriculum and instruction in four kindergarten classrooms

The quality of handwriting curriculum and instructional practices in actual classrooms was investigated in an in-depth case study of four inner city kindergarten classrooms using quantitative and qualitative methods. The handwriting proficiency of students was also evaluated to assess the impact of the instructional practices observed. The findings suggest that even though teachers employ a number of effective strategies, there is room for improvement in implementing effective, research-approved handwriting instruction. In particular, daily, explicit instruction, writing for fluency, writing from memory, and use of self-evaluation are areas that need improvement. Results indicate that the lack of emphasis on these practices impacted the quality of teaching and learning of handwriting skills. Future research is needed on the impact of teacher training, use of an assessment tool that objectively assesses students’ handwriting, use of reading and handwriting curriculum that complement and reinforce one another, and the effectiveness of research-based strategies in practice.     

Early childhood intervention: possibilities and prospects for professionals, families and children

In March 2005, Barry Carpenter, OBE, Chief Executive and Director of Research at Sunfield, an education and residential care centre for children with severe and complex learning needs, gave his inaugural professional lecture at University College Worcester. This article is based on that lecture. In it, Barry Carpenter reviews international trends in early childhood intervention and relates these to changing patterns of childhood disability, family needs, practitioner-led service development and Government policy initiatives. He describes a political climate in the UK which is ripe for the development of a nationally cohesive programme of early childhood intervention and proposes a number of key factors hat are crucial to the consolidation of the plethora of initiatives that have taken place in the UK in recent years. These include: early interventions that are delivered from the point of diagnosis; practice that is transdisciplinary; and high quality training for professionals. At the heart of this process, however, must be the voice of the family - guiding, informing, sharing, engaging. The key to successful early childhood intervention, Barry Carpenter argues, is responsivity - to society, to its families, but most of all to its children.     

Relationship between achievement goal orientations and the perceived purposes of playing rugby union for professional and amateur players

The recent professionalization of rugby union makes it an excellent achievement context in which to examine the relationship between achievement goal orientations and the perceived purposes of sport as a function of competitive standard. During the 1996-97 season, 73 professional and 106 amateur rugby players in England completed a series of questionnaires assessing their achievement goal orientations, beliefs about the purposes of rugby and demographic information. The results of a canonical correlation analysis revealed a conceptually coherent relationship between achievement goal orientations and purposes of rugby. Specifically, a high ego/moderate task orientation was positively related to fitness, aggression and financial remuneration as significant purposes of rugby. Professional players scored higher on those purposes of rugby related to aggression, financial remuneration and fitness, but lower on sportspersonship than amateur players. Professional players also reported higher task and ego goal orientations than amateur players. The findings are discussed in terms of the differences in lifestyle and motivation of professional and amateur rugby union players.     

"It's cheesy when they smile:" what girl athletes prefer in images of female college athletes

Building on previous research in which we provided an opportunity for female college athletes to construct their own photographic portrayals, this study explored young female athletes' perceptions of the college athlete photographs. Fifty-two girls participated in focus group interviews where they viewed and discussed the images. The young athletes particularly liked images they perceived to show authentic athletes (e.g, in athletic settings, with appropriate sport attire), images they could relate to due to personal experiences, and images that reflected competent and passionate sportswomen. Images perceived as revealing a lack of motivation, poor sporting attitudes, and nonathletic poses generally were disliked. Images depicting multiple social identities (e.g., an athlete in a dress) were controversial and generated much discussion.