The author, born with a severe visual impairment, addresses the tendency of adolescents with visual impairments to try to hide the disability and "pass" as unimpaired with their peers. It is suggested that these adolescents be helped to find a comfortable balance between taking excessive risks and allowing visual impairment or blindness to be an…

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…

The second of five volumes (and the first of the four curriculum guides) which make up Project Teach 'n' Reach, designed to help regular classroom teachers teach nondisabled children about disabilities, focuses on the affective domain. The volume presents goals, performance objectives, and activity ideas (along with information on materials and…

Designed for junior high school counselors, the guide offers an outline for facilitating group counseling sessions. Intended to be held one class period a week for eight weeks, the sessions aim toward potential improvement in self-esteem, personal relationships, peer understanding, self-awareness, academic performance, and social skills. Each…

Reviews recent literature which has investigated the interaction between learning disabled adolescents' self-concept and academic, peer family, and community systems. A unique behavioral pattern of emotional disturbance may result from continuous, negative self-concept experiences. In the family and/or community, however, these students can be…

Nondisabled students (n=65) and disabled students (n=120) from mainstreamed grades 6 through 12 were surveyed and compared to non-mainstreamed controls. Responses were analyzed in the categories of stereotypes, peer-ratings, and self-ratings. Nondisabled students favorably described the disabled in general, but descriptions of actual disabled…

This study examined social and personal concomitants of exceptional academic capability, specifically self-concept, peer acceptance, and attitude toward school, in the context of integrated or self-contained classrooms. The sample consisted of 354 gifted Ontario students from Grades 5, 8, and 10 (150 in self-contained classrooms and 204 in…

The purpose of this study was to characterize the nature of conversational engagement evidenced by 30 learning-disabled and 30 nondisabled children while they participated in a semi-structured dyadic interaction. Also investigated were the relationships among the levels of engagement employed by the elementary or junior high students and their…

This curriculum is designed to increase junior high and high school students' awareness of their own and other people's paradigms, and how those paradigms influence beliefs, interactions, and relationships. The lessons have been developed to foster ongoing learning in heterogeneous classroom communities that seek to understand and value diverse…