Robert C. Coon

Effects of head injury experience on head injury misconceptions

This study examined the prevalence of misconceptions and effects of head injury experience on the knowledge of head-injury sequelae in a college population. In comparison to previous studies, the college sample demonstrated a lower endorsement of misconceptions relative to the general population. Although there were some significant differences between head-injured and non-head injured subjects’ responses to several items, the overall patterns of responses for the two groups were quite similar. The results suggest that experience with head injury does not necessarily increase knowledge of head injury sequelae and may even bias perceptions in the direction toward increased misconceptions.

Sufficiency of Reward and Allocation Behavior

The present research investigated the effect of sufficiency of reward on the principles that elementary school children employ to allocate rewards to others. Results indicated that Justice children al

Parental Speech Modification to Young Children

Summary The present study compared the speech of fathers and mothers to their young daughters in the age ranges of 19 to 29 months and 32 to 43 months. Verbatim transcripts of audio tape recordings of the verbal interactions of 20 father-daughter dyads and 20 mother-daughter dyads engaged in free play in the family home revealed the degree of parental speech modification to be a function of the age of the child. Both fathers and mothers adjusted certain aspects of their speech relative to child age and displayed very similar patterns of speech adjustment.

The influence of divorce on coping in adolescence

The present study explored the relations between family status and coping processes in adolescence. Given the inconsistent findings with regard to the divorce experience, our intent was to determine if coping strategies endorsed by adolescents are related to family status. Further, appraisals of stressfulness, controllability, and perceived outcome of stressful situations were examined in relation to family status and coping strategies endorsed. Adolescents of divorced parents more frequently endorsed theoretically less mature, defensive coping strategies. Sex differences were noted in the intact group, while males and females in the divorce group were more alike in their coping responses. Appraisal variables were differentially related to coping behaviors in each group.

Misconceptions, discrimination, and disabling language: synthesis and review.

Misconceptions about various disabling conditions abound in the general population and are related to the presence of socially disabling stereotyping as a cultural phenomenon. Significant levels of misconception have been demonstrated among the population regarding head injuries, epilepsy, and electroconvulsive shock treatment. Public ignorance in these domains is thought to breed a climate ripe for discrimination, and numerous studies have shown that such discrimination does occur in the workplace and, perhaps more important, in the world of everyday discourse. Discrimination patterns are not uniform, however, and all disabling conditions are not alike in their susceptibility to discrimination. This article presents a review of the relationships among misconceptions, employment discrimination, and language discrimination patterns, as these factors function as obstacles to community reentry for many persons with disabilities. Strategies for overcoming the effects of social stereotyping and discrimination are offered, with the goal of educating the professional and rehabilitation communities about unwitting discrimination perpetrated by individuals belonging to these communities.

Effects of listener feedback on the messages of kindergarten children in a referential communication task

Abstract A referential communication paradigm was employed with kindergarten children to determine the effects of systematically varied feedback following inadequate message production. Feedback conditions included three levels of verbal specificity presented either alone or in combination with visual feedback. Results indicated that kindergarten children formulated more adequate referential messages when provided with either highly specific verbal feedback or a chance to view the listeners incorrect choice of referent. The differential effectiveness of various types of feedback was discussed in terms of the role of comparison activities in the referential communication process, and implications for the communicative competency of kindergarten children were considered.

Implications for evaluating abused children : An independent study of the frequency of abused children referred to and enrolled in special education classes in a major Southeastern United States metropolitan area

This study investigated the frequency with which a group of identified child abuse victims in a single year appeared in independently gathered school records as manifesting developmental difficulties. Records from school entry were studied to determine the frequency of school behavioral problems, suspensions, and referral to special education consideration. This procedure based on independent and previously existing records yielded substantially lesser evidence of problems and handicapping conditions than those reported in the literature.

Communication Styles of Bilingual Preschoolers in Preferred and Nonpreferred Languages

Summary Language samples of 31 boys and girls attending a bilingual preschool were transcribed from conversations with a puppet. In one conversation the puppet spoke only in the childs preferred language, while on another occasion, the puppet spoke only in the nonpreferred language of the child. This research was undertaken to determine whether or not bilingual, limited second language speakers and monolingual preschool children speak in the language in which they are spoken to. Of particular interest was the extent to which children would adjust their language to meet the needs of the listener. Differences in the type of responses made by bilingual, limited, and monolingual children under the two experimental situations were compared. Overall results indicated that, when young children were able to speak in the language in which they are spoken to, they usually did. Even the children who lacked a critical skill for communication in another language attempted to adjust their own verbal code to meet the l...

An evaluation of prosodic and content variations in college students with and without head injuries

In this study, we evaluated the impact of language variations on listeners with and without head injuries. Participants with and without previous head injuries rated speakers using either normal or motherese speech register. ANOVA results revealed that participants in both groups rated speakers using normal prosody and normal content more favorably than speakers who spoke in motherese content and prosody. When speakers used only one of these motherese components in their speech, listeners still found disfavor with it, though less so than when speakers incorporated both components. Although both components related to ratings of the speakers, content variations exerted a larger influence. This supports implications of previous studies and offers the caveat that not only is “what” you say important, but also “how” you say it.

The influence of written disabling, nondisabling, and unaltered disability descriptors on attitudes toward persons with a disability among persons with and without a head injury

Using a between-subjects design, 208 college students completed three versions of the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP) to determine whether the language used to describe persons with a disability would affect respondents’ scores. The sample included individuals who had previously sustained a head injury with at least momentary loss of consciousness (N=59), students who had not experienced a head injury but who had lived with a relative who had (N=44), and students who had not experienced a head injury and who did not have a relative who had experienced a head injury (N=105). We randomly assigned different versions of the ATDP, using the original unaltered, disabling, or nondisabling descriptors, to paticipants who completed the forms they received. The descriptors used were “disabled person” (original descriptor), “person with a disability” (nondisabling descriptor), and “the disabled” (disabling descriptor). No significant differences in ATDP scores were evident for the effects of group or form. The only significant finding was a main effect for gender, indicating that more favorable attitudes were expressed by female respondents than by male respondents. These results have significant implications with regard to research on disabling language and the importance of process and content variables in defining disabling language.