Debate continues over the hypothesis that children with language or literacy difficulties have a genuine auditory processing deficit. Several recent studies have reported deficits in frequency discrimination (FD), but it is unclear whether these are genuine perceptual impairments or reflective of the comorbid attentional problems that exist in…

This fact sheet summarizes information on children who have an attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD), are gifted, or are both ADHD and gifted. Fourteen diagnostic criteria for ADHD from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III are listed. A comparison of behaviors associated with ADHD and with giftedness is…

Presented are examples of auditory training procedures using toys, environmental sounds and speech with visually impaired, multiply handicapped children. (CL)

Two aides operating a kindergarten-style program for four to eight institutionalized mental retardates (6-to-11 years-old) were trained, using observer feedback, to apply generalized correct social contingencies to 10 defined classes of appropriate and inappropriate child behaviors. (Author)

Two experiments were conducted (1) to identify the component processes of language comprehension that draw upon cognitive capacity for their execution, and (2) to determine differences in patterns of resource allocation during integrative processing for good and poor readers. In the first experiment, nine good and nine poor college-age readers…

The purpose of this review is to determine the scientific status of the proposition that viewing television in general or viewing "Sesame Street" in particular affects children's attentional skills, abilities, or behaviors. It has been frequently claimed that television viewing negatively affects children's attentional abilities. The…

The category of attention deficit disorder is defined in terms of diagnostic symptoms (inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity) and definitions. Aspects which need to be covered in the classroom evaluation of a child with suspected attention deficit disorder are reviewed, including examination of the task for its appropriateness; determination…

Four-, six- and eight-year-old children from an Evanston, Illinois school were the subjects for three experiments designed to evaluate the effects of color, complexity, movement, and incongruity on children's visual attention. Computer generated displays were used to: (1) assess developmental trends among the three age groups, (2) test a novel…

Three related experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of novel and familiar stimuli on infant attention. The procedure in each of the experiments was to place an infant before a matrix panel composed of six rows of six lights. Two patterns of lights were used to obtain the infants' fixation time: (1) a point pattern, a single…

One characteristic of human learning, which most psychologists and educators appear to deem highly desirable, is that of attending long enough to a stimulus so that learning occurs. It is this principle that gave a major purpose to the study to investigate the relationship between a simple and a complex attention span task and the reading…

Evaluated was the effectiveness of the TAC (Training in Attention and Concentration) Program with seven trainable retarded persons, 8- to 20-years-old. Pre- and posttest data were obtained on the Maze-trial test, a picture discrimination test, buttons test, and object sort test. The TAC Program consisted of 10 structured lessons on such tasks as…

Two studies examined serial recall process of first-grade Canadian children from inner-city and suburban backgrounds. In the first study significant differences were found in the serial position curve of recall. Suburban children recalled a greater number of early-presented, primacy items, while inner-city children who had equivalent span…

This study investigated attention and performance on simple tasks as well as classroom attention of seriously disturbed, communication-impaired, autistic-type children under conditions of reduced auditory input (using ear protectors) and under conditions of normal auditory input (using a placebo device). Under ear protector conditions, there was a…