Religious attitudes about blindness such as viewing blindness as a punishment for sins or viewing blind persons as helpless present extremely difficult attitudinal barriers. The article explores the relationship between religion, religious attitudes, and blindness and describes a seminar training program for ministerial students. (Author/CB)

Explores the topic of learned helplessness in children. Discusses these counselor strategies for helping children with learned helplessness: develop realistic attributions, provide feedback, provide success experiences, provide microcomputer experiences, and set realistic goals and expectations. (ABL)

The Total Environment Approach was developed to deal with possible constraints in three areas of the environment which limit the older individual's ability to choose leisure activities. The three areas are: the physical environment, the psychological environment, and the social environment. (JN)

Through a case study of one gifted child, this article explores the themes of being in charge of oneself and one's environment, and of attempting to assimilate dangers in the world around them. Efforts to cope with and understand danger, from natural disaster to daily life, are closely examined. (PB)

A powerful practical reclaiming strategy for youth at risk is to tap their potential for service to others. This counters a sense of learned helplessness. The term "learned helplessness" (Seligman, 1975) comes to mind when the author thinks about when she began working with troubled youth more than 20 years ago. Her and her co-workers often spoke…

In 2002, Neil Humphrey and Patricia Mullins published their research into personal constructs and attribution for academic success and failure in dyslexia in BJSE's "Research Section". Their work suggested that pupils with dyslexia, in a range of settings, experience real challenges to their self-esteem and that dyslexia leads to "negative…

Experienced elementary teachers (N=98) described their general strategies for coping with failure syndrome students and told how they would handle incidents depicted in two vignettes portraying failure syndrome problems at school. Compared to their responses concerning some of the other problem student types addressed in the Classroom Strategy…

The author reviews literature on childrens' reactions to perceived failure and offers "learned helplessness" as a model to explain why a child who makes a mistake gives up. Suggestions for preventing these reactions are given. (Author/JMK)

Relates the theory of learned helplessness to the losses of aging, and describes a brief experiential training program for service providers, teaching interpersonal skills useful in working with the depressed elderly. Focuses on reducing helplessness by allowing the elderly to have impact within the counseling interaction. (RC)

Addresses the relationship of fear to certain outdoor adventure activities that are a part of some environmental education programs. Describes the construct of fear, its use in outdoor environmental programs, and the results of two recent studies on fear. (TW)

Principles arising from aspects of Vygotsky's ideas for the development of self regulation and from cognitive social learning theory are discussed. It is suggested that present methods of teaching mathematics are not adequate and that the use of instructional technology is needed to overcome the shortcomings. (JAZ)

Health professionals concerned about children's mental health say schools have become more stressful places and that many students cannot handle the pressure. Factors contributing to students' stress include high-stakes testing, fear of failure, parent pressure, and large impersonal schools. To combat the effects of a large school, Venice High…

This report describes the outcomes of a one-year federally funded pilot study of 14 students with low vision or blindness (grades 3-6) and 13 teachers. The study was designed to generate practical classroom assessment procedures for measuring "learned helplessness" and recommendations for a conceptual intervention model for use in the classroom.…

Learned helplessness often precedes depression. The elderly are more likely than the general population to be faced with uncontrollable events which may bring on learned helplessness. Intervention by gerontological counselors has been useful in reducing effects of helplessness. With pseudohelplessness, persons act helpless in order to control…

Students with emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD) are characterized by academic deficits and classroom behavioral problems. The relationship between problem behavior and academic difficulties is complex, and some researchers have hypothesized that the classroom behavior problems of students with E/BD are responses to aversive stimuli, namely…