The performance of preschoolers with speech/language disorders on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities

The McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) was used to evaluate the performance of preschool children with speech/language disorders. Preschoolers were screened first for normal intelligence using the Performance scale of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI). Preschoolers with speechllanguage disorders had significantly lower scores on all scales of the MSCA (Verbal, Perceptual/Performance, Quantitative, and Memory), except the Motor scale. They also had an average 20-point lower GCI than the control children. An analysis of the scores of the speechllanguage group on subtests revealed difficulty in short- term auditory memory skills but not in short-term visual memory skills. Deficits in categorical thinking skills and verbal expression skills were also evident. Characteriza- tion of learning disabilities in preschoolers with speechllanguage disorders is discussed.     

Misconceptions in Van den Broeck's representation of misconceptions about learning disability research

The methods and conclusions of Van den Broeck (in this issue) are evaluated from two perspectives: (a) statistical considerations and (b) theoretical models of IQ and achievement, specifically reading achievement. We consider the statistical model proposed by Van den Broeck for the regression-based discrepancy model (RDM) to be either irrelevant or conceptually inconsistent with current models of IQ and achievement. The resulting simulation produced exemplar cases that are not realistic in terms of practice. The theoretical representations of IQ and achievement were, in our understanding, inconsistent with contemporary models of either. We suggest that acceptable models support the use of the RDM as it has been proposed by us and by others as one component of the determination of the presence or absence of a learning disability.     

The incidence of severe physical child abuse in Wales

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were: (1) to ascertain the incidence and nature of severe physical child abuse in Wales; (2) to ascertain the incidence of all physical abuse in babies under 1 year of age; and (3) to determine whether child protection registers (CPR) accurately reflect the numbers of children who are physically abused. METHODS: This is a population-based incidence study based in Wales, UK, for 2 years from April 1996 through March 1998. Children studied were under the age of 14 with severe physical abuse consistent with the criminal law level of Grievous Bodily Harm. This included seven categories of injury (death; head injury including subdural hemorrhage; internal abdominal injury; physical injury in Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy including suffocation; fracture; burn or scald; adult bite). Cases were ascertained by a pediatrician surveillance reporting system (WPSU). A criterion for inclusion was multidisciplinary agreement that physical abuse had occurred (at case conference, strategy meeting, or Part 8 Review). The incidence of all babies under 1 year of age with physical abuse was also studied. Ascertainment of babies under the age of 1 year was undertaken from CPR as well as the WPSU. RESULTS: Severe abuse is six times more common in babies [54/100,000/year (95% CI +/- 17.2)] than in children from 1 year to 4 years of age [9.2/100,000 (95% CI +/- 3.6)]. It is 120 times more common than in 5- to 13-year-olds [0.47/100,000 (95% CI +/- 0.47)]. This is mainly because two types of serious abuse (brain injury including subdural hemorrhage and fractures) are more common in babies under the age of 1 year than older children. Using data from two sources (the WPSU and CPRs), the incidence of physical abuse in babies is 114/100,000 (CI 114 +/- 11.8) per year. This equates to 1 baby in 880 being abused in the first year of life. The largely rural Health Authority area in Wales had incidence figures for abuse in babies that were 50% of the three other predominantly urban Health Authority areas. Boys throughout the series were more at risk of being severely abused than girls (p < .025). Only 29% of the babies under 1 year of age on the CPR had actually been injured. Thirty percent of abused babies under the age of 1 year and 73% of severely abused children over the age of 1 year had caused previous concern to health professionals regarding abuse or neglect. Conclusions: Physical abuse is a significant problem in babies under the age of 1 year. Very young babies (under 6 months old) have the highest risk of suffering damage or death as a result of physical abuse. Severe abuse, in particular subdural hematoma and fracture, is much more common in babies than in older children. There is evidence of failure of secondary prevention of child abuse by health professionals, with a greater need to act on concerns regarding abuse and neglect. Interagency child protection work in partnership with parents should focus more on protecting babies under age 1 year from further abuse than on maintenance of the infant within an abusive home. The CPR is not intended as an accurate measure of children suffering abuse. It is a record of children requiring a child protection plan and must not be used as a measure of numbers of abused children.     

Developing Principals to be Effective Leaders

Issues about leaders arise periodically in societies; currently they seem to be particularly salient (Clark and Clark, 1990, p1). Many scholars and policy-makers believe that leadership represents an important means for understanding and improving organisations such as schools. For example, Thomas (1988) and Day and Lord (1988) present compelling evidence that individual leaders do make a difference in organisational effectiveness. Similarly, in educational settings, Roberts (1985) concludes that leadership has a substantial impact on school organisations. In particular, the effective schools movement in the United States during the early 1980s gave great credence to the speculation that principals are the key to school performance. Leading scholars, eg Sergiovanni (1981) and Clark, Lotto, and McCarthy (1980), essentially endorsed this generalisation. Immegart (1988) was a little more cautious, but opined that leadership and leader behaviour can make a difference.     

An urban school renewal program: A case analysis

Conclusion One of the most gratifying returns was a chance comment offered by a teacher as we walked across the lawn toward a local fast food restaurant. We were chatting about what he had experienced during the preceding two years. You know, he said, when we began this, I didn't see many hopeful signs, but I think that most of us (teachers) feel now that we work in the best high school in the city. The source may have been biased, and rigorous controls were obviously lacking, but that is the way one teacher perceived the changes. Many gained planning, leadership, problem solving, and other important behavioral and coping skills that contributed in interactively subtle, but nevertheless real ways.Can good things be made to happen in urban schools? The quantified data are equivocal, but we believe that the associations among interventions and perceived changes support cautious optimism.     

Evaluating subscale performance on the adaptive behavior inventory for children

Statistics are presented to allow ipsative interpretation of the scaled scores for the six subscales of individual children on the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children. Included are the standard error of the difference between each part score and the mean of all scores and values required for statistical significance at the traditional significance levels of .05 and .01, with the Bonferroni adjustment for the number of comparisons included. The ready availability of this information should enhance application of the ABIC in clinical practice and facilitate research on its efficacy for educational planning and placement of children in various regular and special education programs.     

Infusing humanistic activities into cognitively oriented curriculum

In our current quest for excellence, we often miss the essential nature of it. It is trendy to use such terms as back-to-basics, gifted education, and excellence to describe a new teaching strategy or innovative educational program. It is also true that many of these programs designed for children are really intended to benefit others.Harry Morgan is Chairman of Early Childhood Education at West Georgia College in Carrollton. He is author ofThe Learning Community (Charles Merrill).     

Psychological functioning and family discord among African-American adolescent females with and without a history of childhood sexual abuse

OBJECTIVES: The aim was to examine the rate of childhood sexual abuse along with the factors (age of abuse onset, type of perpetrator, and duration of the abuse), as well as the relationship of these factors to psychological functioning among females with a history of childhood abuse. Second, to determine whether levels of psychological functioning and family discord differ among females with and without a history of childhood sexual abuse. METHOD: A cross-sectional design was used. Two hundred and forty-nine adolescent females were recruited from a community-based health program. Two trained female interviewers administered an anonymous survey that assessed childhood sexual abuse, psychological functioning, and family environment. RESULTS: Fifty-seven (22.9%) of those surveyed reported childhood sexual abuse, of which 44.3% were intrafamilial and 55.7% were interfamilial. Age at onset ranged from 3 years to 17 years; 62.5% reported that the sexual abuse occurred 1 to 4 times; 27.9% reported a duration ranging from 1 year to 13 years; and 9.6% reported a duration of 1 month to 7 months. Multiple regression analysis revealed that a greater duration predicted higher levels of depression and lower levels of self-esteem among females with a history of sexual abuse. Females with a history of childhood sexual abuse scored significantly lower on measures of self-esteem and mastery, and significantly higher on measures of physical and emotional abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that adolescent females with a history of childhood sexual abuse suffer an array of negative sequelae that include psychological and family distress.     

Testing for the Transfer of Tacit Knowledge: Making a Case for Implicit Learning

Companies are beginning to realize that simply storing data in warehouses and databases is not sufficient to ensure the usefulness of that data or information. As information is processed with a purpose ( Ackoff & Emery, 1972 ), it becomes knowledge. Knowledge exists on many planes; one is the tacit‐explicit plane described by Polanyi (1966) . Knowledge‐based applications are becoming a key factor in determining organizational value. For example, Activity‐Based Costing (ABC) and Knowledge Value Added (KVA) are two methodologies that organizations use to measure explicit knowledge. However, this interest in measuring and managing knowledge creates two important questions. First, do companies include tacit knowledge in their measurements of knowledge? Second, can educators demonstrate that they are helping increase tacit knowledge? This paper posits that companies may not be including the full range of knowledge in their endeavor to measure knowledge in their organizations. To help make a case for including tacit knowledge and implicit learning, an active learning exercise is created to demonstrate a method to quantify and test for changes in both types of knowledge. The results show that the activity created observable changes in explicit and tacit knowledge. Future research will need to concentrate further on understanding how the two types of knowledge interact. For now though, these results demonstrate one way to observe the two types of knowledge and more importantly, point out the need for organizations to find ways to value both implicit and explicit knowledge.