Overlapping symptoms of substance abuse and learning handicaps: implications for educators

The effects of substance abuse have produced a population of students who exhibit behaviors similar to the behaviors of many youth with learning problems. Often such students are mislabeled as learning handicapped (including learning disability, behavioral disorder, and attention deficit/hyperactive disorder), when their primary problem is actually one of chemical abuse. The following issues are examined: (a) overlapping symptoms of chemical impairment and learning handicap that may result in misdiagnosis, (b) student populations at high risk for chemical abuse, (c) preventive measures, and (d) intervention and treatment for chemically impaired students.     

Counselor Preferences of Senior High School Students

This study is concerned with the extent to which senior high school students employ the constructs of race, subculture, and sex in establishing counselor preferences. The data suggests that these variables are of far more importance to black students than they are to northern white or to Appalachian white students. The data also supports the findings reported earlier by Stranges and Riccio.     

Evaluation of captioning features to inform development of digital television captioning capabilities.

With rapid advances in digital technology, the broadcast television industry will soon be providing cinema-quality sound and video in the home. Given this technological advance, how should captions change to better serve consumers who are deaf or hard of hearing? To address this question, consumer preference data were collected from 207 deaf students and adults. Videodisc examples of various captioning feature combinations were used to obtain ratings from these consumers. Findings from multivariate conjoint analysis show that some current captioning features should be retained (white letters and speaker-dependent placement), while other features should be adopted (captioning in sentences and use of a clear or semitransparent background). These findings offer guidance to the captioning and television industries as they launch the digital television age.