The expert witness in child abuse and neglect: An interdisciplinary process

The legal system is an important part of a society's response to child abuse and child neglect. Courts need to be guided in their deliberations by experts from many different professions. Consultation and in-court expert testimony is necessary from medicine, psychology, psychiatry, social work and other professions both to prove child abuse and neglect and establish the power of the court to act on behalf of a child but also to guide the court in the intervention strategy most suited to the needs of the child and his family. Non-lawyers often feel uncomfortable in the legal setting. The adversary process is foreign to their training and professional experience. Collaboration with a lawyer greatly improves their effectiveness in court. Lawyers, on the other hand, need to make maximum use of medical and social-psychological experts in the court process in the interests of their clients; but to do so lawyers need a basic understanding of the other professions. With an emphasis on a process of mutual education, the paper presents a framework for collaboration between lawyers and expert witnesses in child abuse and neglect cases. “Expert witness” is defined; informal consultation is encouraged; suggestions for selecting a collaborator are made; initial contracts between lawyer and expert, case conferencing and preparation for trial are discussed; specific advice on direct and cross examination is provided.     

Next Steps for Mind,Brain, and Education: Strengthening Early‐Career Development

An increasing number of scholars are being trained in the field of mind, brain, and education (MBE), yet discussions of trainees' needs and how to meet them are rare. We, the inaugural International Mind, Brain, and Education Society (IMBES) Trainee Board, identify three broad needs of MBE trainees: guidance and support, greater access to and connections among the MBE community, and professional development. We report a first step to address these needs: a daylong trainee conference, which included sessions to foster connections among trainees, provide mentorship from MBE leaders, and provide knowledge and skill building for careers. Attendees' survey results suggest the conference successfully supported trainees' development. As substantial trainee needs remain, we offer specific ways that principal investigators, institutions, funding agencies, future IMBES trainee boards, and the MBE community can further address trainees' needs to support early‐career development and strengthen the MBE field generally.     

Secondary school experiences of individuals with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder: perspectives of parents and their children

The purpose of this study was to examine persistence in school among students with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) from the perspectives of the students themselves and their parents. Tinto’s (1975 Tinto, V. 1975. Dropout from higher education: a theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45(1): 89–125. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1997 Tinto, V. 1997. Classrooms as communities: exploring the educational character of student persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 68(6): 599–623. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Student Integration Model (SIM) provided the theoretical framework for this research. This model involves an interplay between (1) background characteristics and attributes affecting the level of goal commitment, (2) level of academic integration, and (3) level of social integration into the institution that determine whether or not a student will graduate. The findings showed limited support for Tinto’s SIM and that parental advocacy is strongly linked with persistence among adolescents with FASD. A new model showing the parents’ role in encouraging persistence through their actions at home and advocacy at the schools is presented.     

The rhetoric of campus architecture

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Persuasion, Rhetoric and Architecture, Visual Rhetoric.

Objectives: This single class activity is designed to raise student awareness about the rhetorical nature of architecture and campus planning; to shift student perceptions away from taking their physical surroundings as “a given” and toward seeing them as the product of strategic human choices and decision making; to foster a spirit of curiosity about how buildings can influence our emotions and behavior; and to reduce student uncertainty about unfamiliar course content.     

Using lay volunteers to represent children in child protection court proceedings

Despite a widespread conviction that children ought to be independently represented in child protection court proceedings in the United States, there is little consensus as to what the role of that independent child advocate ought to be or, indeed, who should fulfill that role. This study accomplished three purposes: articulated an aggressive, ambitious and continuous role for the child's representative which encompassed a broad range of the child's interests, both legal and nonlegal; provided training in this role to demonstration groups of attorneys, law students and lay volunteers; and compared the effectiveness of each of the three demonstration groups in representing children to one another and to a control group of attorneys who received no special training from the research team. The findings indicate that carefully selected and trained lay people representing children in child abuse and neglect legal proceedings under lawyer supervision performed similarly to trained lawyers and law students in the way they approached their duties and in case outcomes achieved and significantly different from attorneys who, consistent with the practice in nearly all the United States, received no special training in child advocacy.     

The differentiated classroom observation scale

This article presents a new classroom observation scale that was developed to examine the differential learning activities and experiences of gifted children educated in regular classroom settings. The Differentiated Classroom Observation Scale (DCOS) is presented in total, with clarification of the coding practices and strategies. Although the DCOS was developed to examine the impact of differentiated classroom practices for gifted children, it is expected that the scale could be used for observing the educational experiences of any identifiable group of children. Reflections on the benefits offered by the DCOS that are not available with existing measures are provided, and include (a) the ability to contrast the educational experiences of two groups of learners; (b) documentation of a variety of educational factors including pedagogy, student engagement, and level of cognitive activity; and (c) preservation of contextual factors for deeper investigation through a database‐driven record keeping system that maintains disaggregated data from a series of short observational segments.     

Ethnicity as a factor in teachers' acceptance of classroom interventions

This study examined the influence of problem severity, type of intervention, and student ethnicity on evaluations of classroom interventions by Anglo-and Mexican-American teachers. Data analysis revealed nonsignificant main effects, while teacher ethnicity x student ethnicity and student ethnicity x problem severity factors approached significance. Results are discussed in relation to previous findings and future research.     

Educational advocacy among adoptive parents of adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the educational advocacy experiences of 36 adoptive parents of adolescents and young adults with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). The participants responded to a questionnaire and 29 of them also engaged in an in-depth individual interview. Data were analysed inductively. Emerging from the data were four dimensions of advocacy: awareness, information seeking, presenting the case and monitoring. It was also found that the Internet was an essential tool for parents to seek information and support from others, and that in some cases advocacy was a means for parents to obtain respect from educators and programmes and services for their children.     

Book reviews

Levine, J. (1999). The Enneagram intelligences: Understanding personality for effective teaching and learning. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey (320 pp., $24.95, cloth, ISBN‐O‐89789‐ 562–2; $59.95 hardcover, ISBN‐0–89789–561–4).

Jacobsen, M. (1999) Liberating everyday genius: Revolutionary guide for identifying and mastering your exceptional gifts . NY: Ballantine Books. (399 pp., $25.00 hb, ISBN‐0–345–42771–8).

Cline, S., & Schwartz, D. (1999). Diverse populations of gifted children: Meeting their needs in the regular classroom and beyond. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill (207 pp., $ paper, ISBN 0–13–399908–4).

Johnson, N.G., Roberts, M.C., & Worell, J., Eds. (1999). Beyond appearance: A new look at adolescent girls. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association (408 pp., $39.95 hb, ISBN‐1–55798–582–0).