Considerations in educating deaf and hard-of-hearing students in inclusive settings

This article provides an overview of key issues pertinent to an inclusive approach to the education of deaf students in order to establish a context for interpreting and integrating the articles in this issue. It discusses definitions of inclusion, integration, and mainstreaming from placement-related, philosophical, and pragmatic perspectives. The article provides demographic information pertinent to an inclusive approach. It also compares perspectives on inclusion in the general field of special education with those in the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. It considers the challenges of using an inclusive approach to achieve academic and social integration of students, as based on research on the learning and adjustment of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in regular classes. The article concludes with an overview of the topics addressed in the issue.     

Predicting long-term outcomes for women sexually abused in childhood: contribution of abuse severity versus family environment

OBJECTIVE: Child sexual abuse (CSA) has been associated with adverse adult psychosocial outcomes, although some reports describe minimal long-term effects. The search for explanations for the heterogeneous outcomes in women with CSA has led to an examination of a range of CSA-related factors, from the severity of individual CSA incidents to the childhood family environment. This study compares three factors for predicting adult outcomes: a multidimensional CSA Severity Scale, the presence or absence of CSA, and family environment. METHODS: The effect of CSA on adult outcomes was examined among 290 community-dwelling women raised in intact families. Standardized measures and a focused interview were used to collect data, with siblings as collateral informants. RESULTS: Comparison of a multidimensional CSA Severity Scale to a dichotomous measure of the presence or absence of CSA showed that the Severity Scale did not have greater predictive value for adult outcomes than the dichotomous measure, nor was it as parsimonious. Childhood family environment scales added significantly to the predictive ability of the dichotomous measure. CONCLUSION: The specific characteristics of a CSA experience may be less important than the occurrence of CSA and the family environment of women for predicting long-term outcomes.     

Risk factors and context of men who physically abuse in Bogotá, Colombia

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for physical abuse caused by male perpetrators, as well as to describe the context of abuse and the role of the female partner in these cases in Bogotá, Colombia. METHODS: Information from in-depth interviews of males reported to authorities for physical child abuse and their female partners (n = 45) was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed and compared to to males and their female partners from the same neighborhood living with a child of the same gender and age (+/-3 years) as the abused child (n = 44). RESULTS: Situations of abuse occurred more often on a weekday, in the afternoon or early evening hours, with the mother present, exceptionally involved substance abuse, and tended to be repetitive. Male subjects' lower level of education, stepfather status, perceived stress, substance abuse and mental illness, lack of social support, history of childhood physical abuse, negative perceptions, attributions and unrealistic expectations of the child's behavior were associated with abuse. Cases' female partners were more likely to have a lower occupational level, a higher frequency of dependent personality, a history of childhood physical and sexual abuse and be herself physically and emotionally abused by her spouse. At least three scenarios for abuse emerged from the analyses: "explosive" men, "abusive disciplinarians," and "children out of parental control." CONCLUSIONS: Most of the findings are consistent with existing research despite the different social and cultural context. The different scenarios suggest the need to tailor preventive and rehabilitative interventions for abusers.     

博物馆之夜

上期回顾卡尔森小姐带我们又一次来到墨西哥和中美洲馆,在那里我们遇到了瓦尔迪兹,卡尔森小姐竟相信了他的花言巧语,我们将前往奇彻·伊特萨城的圣井,我知道那意味着什么……“我看我们得快跑,”我悄声对贾森、贾尼丝和卡拉说,“去告诉其他人……”这时,我注意到马斯顿博士就站在离我们几步远的地方,他身旁还有两个人,我明白他们是在防备我们逃跑。在我们前面矗立着很多建筑,不远处有一扇紧闭着的门。别的同学都在激动雀跃,除了卡拉、贾森、贾尼丝和我,因为我们很清楚等待我们的是什么,但是没人听得进我们的话。现在我们走到门前。瓦尔迪兹…     

The role of speed of processing, rapid naming, and phonological awareness in reading achievement

This study investigated the role of speed of processing, rapid naming, and phonological awareness in reading achievement. Measures of response time in motor, visual, lexical, grammatical, and phonological tasks were administered to 279 children in third grade. Measures of rapid object naming, phonological awareness, and reading achievement were given in second and fourth grades. Reading group comparisons indicated that poor readers were proportionally slower than good readers across response time measures and on the rapid object naming task. These results suggest that some poor readers have a general deficit in speed of processing and that their problems in rapid object naming are in part a reflection of this deficit. Hierarchical regression analyses further showed that when considered along with IQ and phonological awareness, speed of processing explained unique variance in reading achievement. This finding suggests that a speed of processing deficit may be an "extraphonological" factor in some reading disabilities.     

Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to develop and validate a short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (the CTQ-SF) as a screening measure for maltreatment histories in both clinical and nonreferred groups. METHOD: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the 70 original CTQ items were used to create a 28-item version of the scale (25 clinical items and three validity items) and test the measurement invariance of the 25 clinical items across four samples: 378 adult substance abusing patients from New York City, 396 adolescent psychiatric inpatients, 625 substance abusing individuals from southwest Texas, and 579 individuals from a normative community sample (combined N=1978). RESULTS: Results showed that the CTQ-SF's items held essentially the same meaning across all four samples (i.e., measurement invariance). Moreover, the scale demonstrated good criterion-related validity in a subsample of adolescents on whom corroborative data were available. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the viability of the CTQ-SF across diverse clinical and nonreferred populations.     

Simple operated multipurpose temperature control cryostat

A suitable simple optical cryostat for optical, magneto-optical, electrical and thermo-electrical measurements was designed. It is suitable for use in a magnetic pool gap as narrow as less than 1 cm. Throughout a long period of time, the heat diffusion process of the cryostat can be easily operated at slow increase in sample temperature in a range 1.25 K/min at 200 K that will be reduced gradually to 0.66 K at room temperature. Liquid nitrogen was used to cool down the temperature. During the operation, the change in the measured energy gap of a semiconductor sample and other physical parameters resulting from the change of temperature can be corrected through the temperature coefficient of that parameter at the corresponding temperature. The cryostat was successfully used for all experiments mentioned above to measure the properties of a single crystal of GaP (Gallium Phosphate) semiconductor.     

The relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children's resiliency and adjustment

The unique relations of effortful control and impulsivity to resiliency and adjustment were examined when children were 4.5 to 8 years old, and 2 years later. Parents and teachers reported on all constructs and children's attentional persistence was observed. In concurrent structural equation models, effortful control and impulsivity uniquely and directly predicted resiliency and externalizing problems and indirectly predicted internalizing problems (through resiliency). Teacher-reported anger moderated the relations of effortful control and impulsivity to externalizing problems. In the longitudinal model, all relations held at T2 except for the path from impulsivity to externalizing problems. Evidence of bidirectional effects also was obtained. The results indicate that effortful control and impulsivity are distinct constructs with some unique prediction of resiliency and adjustment.