Social Interactions of Retarded Children: Generalization from Mainstream to Special School

Seven IH children attending a special school were integrated into a mainstream school on a part‐time basis over a period of 18 weeks. Effects were evaluated using behavioural measures of activity participation and social interactions during class time and free‐play periods in both the mainstream school and the special school which the children continued to attend. Compared to IH children who remained in the special school, the integrated children showed larger increases in Associative play in the special school free‐play period, but no differential change in classroom behaviour. In the mainstream school, social interactions between IH and non‐handicapped children occurred at high levels in both class and playground periods.     

The relative difficulty of signed arithmetic story problems for primary level deaf and hard-of-hearing students

This study determines the relative difficulty and associated strategy use of arithmetic (addition and subtraction) story problems when presented in American Sign Language to primary level (K-3) deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Results showed that deaf and hard-of-hearing students may consider and respond to arithmetic story problems differently than their hearing peers, with the critical dimension in problem difficulty being based on the operation typically used to solve the problem, not the story within the problem. The types of strategies used by the students supported the order of problem difficulty. The visual-spatial nature of the problem presentation appeared not to assist the deaf and hard-of-hearing students in solving the problems. Factors that may have contributed to this pattern of problem difficulty are discussed so that educators can better align mathematics instruction to the thinking of the deaf child.     

The KAIZEN Leader: Continuously Improving Administration

Organizations need high levels of human performance from all personnel, including leaders. Unfortunately, standard organizational practices in selecting and promoting leaders reinforce behaviors that interfere with high performance from them and those they supervise. The leap from current performance levels to high performance must occur in incremental steps based on a theory of management that requires nothing less than cultural and personal change. This article defines the term “KAIZEN” and describes the changes leaders must make in their attitudes and behavior if they are to create continuously improving organizations.