Bruce Balow

Categories and Variables in Special Education

This paper advocates an educationally focused definition of problems and procedures in educating handicapped children, with particular emphasis on the aptitude by treatment interaction model as a useful guide for both instructional and research activities. Specialized instructional systems based on decision variables are proposed as an alternative to simple categorization and placement of children based on source variables. A brief review of aptitude by treatment interaction research with handicapped children is followed by implications for the organization of schooling, diagnostic and instructional procedures, and preparation of teachers.

Prevalence of Teacher Identified Behavior Problems: A Longitudinal Study

In a longitudinal study from kindergarten through grade 6, teachers annually rated the behavior of 1,586 children who were normally distributed on measures of IQ, socioeconomic status, and school achievement. In any single year, from 23% to 31% of the subjects were judged by their teachers as manifesting behavior problems. Long term cumulative prevalence rates were much higher. Among subjects receiving three or more annual ratings, 59% were considered as having a behavior problem by at least one teacher, and 7.4% were considered as having behavior problems by every teacher who rated them. Results indicate that behavior that at least one teacher is willing to classify as a problem is the norm rather than the exception for elementary school children, which raises serious questions about contemporary expectations regarding childrens behavior in school.

Neonatal serum bilirubin levels related to cognitive development at ages 4 through 7 years.

instances of cryptococcosis. 4 Salyer et al ~ have proposed that the pathogenesis of primary pulmonary cryptococcal infection may be similar to that of primary pulmonary tuberculosis; the subpleural nodule often found at autopsy represents the initial focus of infection, and spread to the hilar lymph nodes follows. Our patient had no clinical evidence of parenchymal lung infection but did have paratracheal adenopathy. Since direct inoculation of the skin may produce cutaneous cryptococcosis2 our patients scalp lesion may represent the portal of entry, with subsequent preauricular adenopathy. There was, presumably, hematogenous spread, as evidenced by the inguinal adenopathy, subcutaneous nodules, and liver granulomata. Confronted with cryptococcal infection, the clinicians impulse is to search for a predisposing condition, such as a malignancy, prolonged steroid therapy, or diabetes. However, none will be found in about 50% of patients. 7-9 Traditionally the treatment for cryptococcosis has been amphotericin. Recently 5-fluorocytosine has been used experimentally, even for meningitis, in patients unable to tolerate amphotericin. 9- 10 Because our patient was clinically stable and ambulatory, and had no evidence of meningitis, a trial of 5-fluorocytosine was begun, to avoid amphotericin toxicity. There was rapid and definitive resolution of all evidence of cryptococcal disease. Because some patients will not respond to a relatively low dose (60 mg/kg) of 5-fluorocytosine, they may need either a higher

Effects of cooperative vs individualistic learning experiences on interpersonal attraction between learning-disabled and normal-progress elementary school students

Abstract The effects of cooperative and individualistic learning experiences were compared on (1) interpersonal attraction between nonhandicapped fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students and learning-disabled peers and (2) achievement. Students participated in a language arts class lasting 90 min a day for 17 days. The results indicate that greater interpersonal attraction between the learning-disabled and normal-progress students and higher achievement resulted in the cooperative than in the competitive condition.

Infant Neurological Abnormalities as Indicators of Cognitive Impairment

In a prospective longitudinal study, 1319 children who had received three neurological examinations during their first year of life were administered measures of cognitive development and academic achievement up to and including 12 years of age. With both social class and birthweight statistically controlled, children identified as neurologically suspect or abnormal on more than one of the infant examinations (N = 22) consistently performed far below control children on measures of intelligence, motor skills, language development and school achievement. Children who had been neurologically suspect or abnormal on only one infant examination (N=165) performed significantly less well than those never suspected of neurological abnormality in infancy (N=1132).

Factors in Special Class Placement

In an effort to identify factors associated with placement in classes for the educable retarded, comparisons were made between a group of 17 low IQ (< 80) regular class subjects and three groups of special class subjects: (a) 18 low IQ (< 80) subjects, (b) 9 average IQ (≧80) subjects, and (c) the total group of 32 special class subjects. No differences were found between regular and special class subjects on preschool readiness and language development or on achievement prior to differential placement. Significant socioeconomic status differences favored the regular class subjects. Both low socioeconomic status and poor school behavior were associated with special class placement of average IQ children. At 9 years of age, significant differences favoring regular class subjects were found on measures of academic achievement. These differences were attributed to the effects of differential school placement.

Perinatal Influences on the Behavior and Learning Problems of Children

For more than a century there has been speculation that the antecedents of mental retardation, learning disabilities, personality disorders, and similar educational and behavioral problems may be associated with anomalies of pregnancy, birth, and infancy. While most of the substantive research in this area has taken place during the past 25 years, its antecedents can be directly traced to the late 19th century. Systematic observation appears to have begun in 1862 with Little, who maintained that birth difficulties—specifically asphyxia, prematurity, and abnormal labor—were directly related to mental deficiency and cerebral palsy.

A program of preparation for teachers of disturbed children.

This article describes a graduate program of preparation for teachers of emotionally and socially maladjusted children. Development, content, operations, and outcomes are presented, together with some of the underlying philosophy -which guides the program.

Effect of Visual Perceptual Training on Reading Achievement

This study was designed to determine the effect of visual perceptual training on perceptual, readiness, and word recognition skills of low readiness first grade children. The experimental group worked on Frostig worksheets. Under equally close attention of the teacher, control pupils listened to stories through a headset. Gains in perception, readiness, and word recognition outcome variables analyzed for experimental and control groups within 16 classrooms and between 4 pretreatment perceptual levels showed no significant differences in favor of the experimental group.

Lateral Dominance and Reading Achievement in the Second Grade

them will tend to approach a word from the wrong direction. Monroe (1932) suggested that in moving the eyes to the right, as is required in reading, the left field of vision is obstructed by the bridge of the nose, and consequently the development of left-to-right eye movements may be more difficult for the left-eyed child. She also suggested that a child who has opposite eye-hand dominance may prefer different directional movements for eye and hand, and therefore find the complex hand-eye coordinations necessary in space perception difficult. Harris (1957) found mixed hand preference much more common in a clinical group of disabled readers than in the general school population. He suggested that this lack of consistent hand preference may be the result of a special maturational difficulty or slowness. Balow (1963), working with 302 first-grade children, studied the effect on three measures of reading achievement of these various types and degrees of hand and eye dominance, singly and in interaction: strong, moderate, and mixed hand dominance; normal, crossed, and mixed dominance; and directional confusion. He reasoned that if these characteristics are associated with reading disability, they are also associated with reading achievement in the first grade. Yet, he found no combination of hand dominance and eye dominance, hand-eye dominance and knowledge of right and left, or strength of dominance and knowledge of right and left significantly associated with reading achievement. The problem considered in this study is whether the dominance anomalies specified by Dearborn, Harris, and Monroe are significantly associated with reading achievement in the second grade.