Report summarizes research conducted in the Child Development and Mental Retardation Center and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Washington, based on five to six years of preliminary study in analyzing styles of social interaction between young children and their mothers. (Authors)

Currently, students in early childhood special education programs experience social isolation. To ameliorate the inappropriate behaviors that often contribute to this isolation, it is imperative that educators begin to include instruction in appropriate social interaction in the general education early childhood curriculum for children with…

Defines interactive writing and how it works. Recommends starting with the message sheet, then going on to written conversation and writing to a make-believe character. Identifies six benefits of interactive writing and asserts that interactive writing supports a basic human need of expressing one's thoughts and communicating them to others. (DLH)