Factor analysis of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale found three factors: (1) social impairment, (2) negative emotionality, and (3) distorted sensory response. Subjects with autism were distinguished from subjects with either pervasive or nonpervasive developmental disorders by higher scores on social impairment. Negative emotionality was most…

A research review on the use of Snoezelen (multisensory training) with people with mental retardation demonstrates a wide range of positive outcomes, though there is little evidence of generalization even to the immediate post-Snoezelen environment. The issue of staff attitudes and the place of Snoezelen in facilitating positive interactions is…

AIDS related stigma continues to impact the lives of "People Living With HIV/AIDS" (PLWHA) negatively. Although the consequences of stigmatization have been widely documented, certain areas of study need to be further addressed in order to better understand their implications for PLWHA; such is the case of the perceptions of the body's…

The diagnosis of developmental dyslexia (DD) is reliant on a discrepancy between intellectual functioning and reading achievement. Discrepancy-based formulae have frequently been employed to establish the significance of the difference between "intelligence" and "actual" reading achievement. These formulae, however, often fail to take into…

Two studies were conducted. In study one 100 participants rated 60 occupations on the amount of cognitive/intellectual, physical, sensory-perceptual, and perceptual-motor demands they perceived as required for successful performance in that particular occupation. Results of a cluster analysis determined four clusters of occupations on the basis of…

Exploring material from the ERIC database and other sources, the report (1) annotates introductory articles regarding the assessment, categorization, and implications of learning styles, showing how they relate to communication literature research; (2) describes H. Witkin's extensive cognitive style research; and (3) details L. Curry's review of…

These experiments focus upon two assumptions of the levels of processing formulation: that context provides exclusive control over the qualitative nature of encoding, and that amount recalled is determined both by cue-trace compatibility and by depth. The results cast doubt upon the validity of each assumption. (Author/MH)

Parents of 401 infants and toddlers completed the 81-item Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile. Findings suggest that 48 items best characterized sensory processing for children 7-36 months, whereas 36 items appeared relevant for children birth-6 months. Reliability analyses were consistent with clusters identified in Dunn's model of sensory processing…

Outcomes for infants with birth weights less than 800 grams, consequences for their families, and implications for primary care providers are considered. Early identification of difficulties, such as disorders of sensory integration and learning disabilities, and early intervention are advocated. Follow-up when the child is school-age is also…

This article proposes that gifted children with Asperger's syndrome may not be identified because their unusual behaviors may be wrongly attributed to either their giftedness or to a learning disability. Ways in which the syndrome might be missed and guidelines for differentiating characteristics of giftedness from Asperger's characteristics are…

The author discusses how nonverbal actions in young children are powerful communicators of experience, both past and present, and proposes new ways to observe, analyze, and reflect about these silent signals. The article describes the author's Ways of Seeing program, which uses principles of dance movement psychotherapy, the discipline of…

Presents an interview with Susan Lederman that contains a fascinating and informative overview of the recent developments in neuropsychological research concerning the sense of touch. Discusses the physiological processes that support this sensory experience and reveals them to be much more flexible, intricate, and adaptive than previously…

This article evaluates the scientific basis (primarily gained through uncontrolled, descriptive studies) of various sensory and motor interventions for children with autism and concludes that most categories of interventions, including sensory integration, sensory stimulation approaches, auditory integration training, and prism lenses, have shown…

This study, involving a 10-year-old child with cerebral palsy and autism, found that the use of headphones resulted in an increase in on-task behavior whether stimuli were presented in an audiovisual mode, an audio-only mode, or a visual-only mode. Preference was for the auditory only or the mixed audiovisual stimuli. (DB)

Discussion of the development of instructional multimedia materials focuses on a study of undergraduates that examined how the use of visual icons affected learning, differences in the instructional effectiveness of visual versus auditory processing of the same information, and timing (whether simultaneous or sequential presentation is more…