The article examines several issues regarding the education of gifted and talented students, by answering letters sent in by readers of the journal. Issues examined include private v public schools, teacher resentment of gifted children, coping with being "different," special classes, and enrichment programs. (DLS)

The self-perceptions of 44 first and second grade Israeli children with learning disabilities (LD) and their 36 nondisabled classmates were assessed. LD children were found to have a greater positive bias and lower self-perception in the cognitive competence domain and similar perceptions as nondisabled peers of peer acceptance despite…

A student attitude questionnaire was given to 1,465 gifted and talented adolescents who identified 5 strategies used to deal with potentially stigmatizing events (cover up, lie, placate, be truthful, and cop-out). The placate coping strategy was the most frequently used across scenarios. (DB)

The third of six volumes in the series on the Making Special Friends Project (designed to increase interactions between handicapped students and their peers), describes an inservice training program to help implement the model. Suggested steps in organizing and preparing to implement the model are outlined, and a plan for inservice training is…

The fourth of six volumes on the Making Special Friends Project, an approach to promoting social interactions between severely handicapped students and nonhandicapped persons in the school and community, details procedures for implementation. The first section discusses a cornerstone of the project, the expanded Individualized Education Program…

This project was inspired by a belief that too little attention is paid by the academic structure to its responsibility within the school experience of developing "caring" individuals. The project's goal was to test the idea that "Caring Quality" could be "taught". (Author/RK)

A program to prepare elementary grade students for mainstreaming of handicapped students is described. An outline of objectives, student activities, and required media and materials to improve understand of hearing impairment, visual impairment, physical handicap, and learning disability are provided. (DB)

Three interpersonal patterns are described as one way to classify types of gifted students with social problems: disapproval, entitlement, and unmet expectations. Examples of student behavior and counseling implications of each pattern are noted. (CL)

Since children with cancer have increasingly greater chances of survival and, with modern treatment methods, may be able to return to school, the classroom teacher must come to terms with personal emotions about the student. Members of the school staff should meet to make plans for continuing the education of the child who has cancer. (JN)

Thirteen programmatic factors are identified and considered for their role in fostering social integration in mainstreamed settings. (CL)

The effects of a classroom program designed to improve 109 fifth- and sixth-grade students' attitudes toward blind peers are examined. The results indicated that children who received the lessons had better feelings about blind children but were less inclined to engage in activities with them than those who received no lessons. (Author/PHR)

This survey of local education agencies (N=40) examines educational placement of visually impaired students and related factors that might be helpful in development of placement procedures for day school programs. Widespread acceptance of multiply handicapped children in day school programs appears to be affecting educational placement and related…

This study compared the perceptions of 20 normal peers of the nonspeech characteristics of 8 dysarthric (with cerebral palsy) and 8 normal-speaking children (ages 6-11). Results indicated that the normal speakers were judged much more positively than the dysarthric speakers. Implications for the mainstreaming of children with dysarthric speech are…

Ten learning-disabled elementary students experiencing peer rejection participated in a 20-week intervention with a contextualist training model. Five of the 10 students' social status was classified as unrejected at the postintervention measure, and there were significant increases in positive peer nominations for males at posttest and 6-month…

This article considers educational implications of a child with cancer, including incidence, telling the child about his/her disease, school reentry, what classmates want to know, counseling the child with cancer, handling the issue of death, and staff issues. A lesson plan on childhood cancer for elementary students is also included. (DB)