This article focuses on the stigma that results from childhood illnesses and disabilities. Roots of stigmatization and the impact of physically observable differences on young people are discussed. Recommends therapeutic approaches for helping children respond more sensitively to peers with disabilities and to assist youngsters affected by medical…

The experience of the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of suburban Buffalo, New York, belies the beliief that traditional practices of labeling students are necessary to obtain funding of special educational programs. (DB)

The effects of labeling on mentally retarded individuals were studied using 80 psychology students as Ss. Ss reviewed transcripts of two bogus interviews and evaluated the interviewees--one was presented as retarded and institutionalized, one was presented as normal. Ss tended to rate the stigmatized person more favorably, a pattern termed…

A middle school is a complex setting in which to develop a sense of self. The following accounts of three young women reveal ways that identity is confronted, offering insights for all learners. The intent is to show how prospective and practicing teachers can gain greater access to fostering identities in the making. The language of Bakhtin gives…

The disadvantages of the R. Heber, the World Health Organization, and the A.A.M.D. (1973) classifications of mental deficiency are discussed. (Author/CL)

This paper reports that United States physicians' judgments of child abuse are moderately affected by ethnic status and socioeconomic status of the family in addition to level of injury to the child, whereas 41 Northern Ireland physicians' judgments were slightly but not significantly affected by socioeconomic status and religion. (Author/JDD)

A study involving 1,337 students in Arizona was conducted to compare the classification of learning disabilities across several school districts, utilizing the then-proposed Bureau of Education for the Handicapped (BEH) formula. Three types of problems were apparent: the basic concept of learning disability varied across districts; the areas of…

The paper, given by the director of a project to train teachers for early childhood education programs which integrate handicapped and normal children, focuses on the effects of labeling on teacher-child interaction. The author recounts her own experience with teaching handicapped children and the historical tendency to label and segregate various…

The question raised in this paper is whether the counseling descriptor, chosen in 1952, has been, in fact too delimiting for the purposes and goals of the profession stated in 1952 and particularly as alternative methodologies have developed in the 25 years since then. (Author)

Investigated with six highly active 4- and 5-year-old Caucasian boys (three Ss labeled by teachers as hyperactive and three controls) was the extent to which inappropriate behaviors and differences in attention span provoked teachers to differentiate between highly active and hyperactive children. (IM)

An instrument developed for selecting students for gifted programs on the basis of performance and behavior opens up opportunities for interested students to demonstrate their capacity without any taint of elitism. (MLF)

The survey of 175 Florida teachers of the emotionally handicapped (EH) found that five characteristics were thought to be descriptive of mildly disturbed children and five were thought most descriptive of severely disturbed children, while no consensus was obtained with regard to the moderately disturbed category. (Author/DLS)

Traditionally, gifted programs have focused only on students deemed academically gifted, excluding those with vocational/technical, artistic, or personal/social talents. Article suggests it is immoral to identify 5% of the student population as "gifted" and the rest as "ungifted." Since all students have relative talent…