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Variability in the social and behavioral characteristics of students with emotional disturbance (ED) in the public schools may impact special education effectiveness; yet very little evidence exists on how such variability may express itself from school to school. One place to begin such investigation involves school context as expressed by income level and academic performance. In this study, we selected 140 children (grades kindergarten through 6) receiving special education services for ED in schools in a large east-coast urban area. We gathered school-wide test results from state achievement testing and school poverty levels from eligibility for free or reduced lunch on each school. For each child, we collected teacher ratings of problem behavior and social skills. Findings from regression analyses revealed significant relationships between school context and children's externalizing and internalizing behavior. We discuss the implications of these findings for the concept of ED as a unitary disability category in special education research and practice.

The present study explored the prevalence of the derogatory invective "retard" (i.e., "r-word") in everyday speech among American youth. A total of 1,169 youth between the ages of 8 and 18 years old participated in the present study. Results showed high prevalence of the r-word, as 92% of youth had heard someone use the word as a slang invective. Results also indicated that youth responded differently depending on who the word was directed toward (i.e., person with or without an intellectual disability), who said the word (i.e., friend vs. nonfriend), and who heard the word (i.e., females vs. males; younger vs. older youth). Implications for eliminating the r-word from everyday use are discussed.

Background: A key aspect of social perception is the interpretation of others' intentions. Children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have difficulty interpreting benign intentions when a negative event occurs. From a cognitive processing perspective, interpreting benign intentions can be challenging because it requires integration of conflicting information, as the social cues accompanying the negative event convey non-hostile intentions. The present study examined how children with ID process conflicting social information in a more diverse set of situational circumstances than was investigated previously, including situations involving hostile intentions. We hypothesised that when conflicting information in a social situation consists of mixed social cues that convey insincere benign intentions (a type of hostile intentions), children with ID would have difficulty arriving at an accurate interpretation, just as they do when a negative event is accompanied by cues that convey benign intentions. We also hypothesised that when a negative event is accompanied by cues that convey benign intentions, the presence of a highly salient negative event would pose added interpretation difficulty for these children. Methods: Participants (58 children with ID and 189 children without ID in grades 2-6) viewed 13 videotaped vignettes. In each vignette, social cues that accompanied a negative event provided information about the intentions of the character that caused the event. After presenting each vignette, we asked the child questions designed to assess aspects of social perception, including his/her interpretation of intentions. Vignettes represented three types of situations that pose conflicting information: (1) a conflict between a negative event and social cues, which conveyed benign intentions (five items); (2) the presence of conflicting social cues that conveyed insincere benign intentions (four items); and (3) additional items designed to examine the effect of the salience of negative event and cues on accurate interpretation of benign intentions (four items). Teachers completed rating scales of social behaviour, enabling us to examine whether the ability to interpret intentions when conflicting information is present is related to children's social behaviour. Results: Children with ID had lower interpretation accuracy than children without ID for all three social situations that presented conflicting information. Children with ID appeared to have particular difficulty interpreting benign intentions when a negative event (but not the social cue) was made salient. For children with ID, interpretation accuracy and teacher-rated social behaviour were related. Conclusions: Results demonstrated that the presence of conflicting information poses cognitive processing challenges in a variety of social situations, making it difficult for children with ID to arrive at accurate interpretations. Children with ID were less likely than children without ID to interpret intentions accurately, not just when the social cues conveyed benign intentions, but also when mixed social cues conveyed hostile intentions. In addition, when social cues accompanying a negative event convey benign intentions, the relative salience of the negative event and the cues can affect interpretation accuracy for children with ID. Discussion focuses on implications for understanding the cognitive component of the social domain of adaptive behaviour, for explaining gullibility in children with ID and for instructional practices.

The social acceptance of children with and without intellectual disabilities was examined in an inclusive, summer recreational program. Participants were 67 children entering Grades 3 through 6, of which 29 were identified as having a mild intellectual disability. Children were recruited from economically and racially diverse urban school districts. Results showed that children with and without intellectual disabilities were equally accepted by their peers. Specifically, 95% of children without intellectual disabilities indicated that they liked to "hang out with" at least 1 child with an intellectual disability. Results also indicated that the majority of children without intellectual disabilities made at least 1 new friend with another child with an intellectual disability. The features of recreational programming that promote social inclusion are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the sport experience for athletes with intellectual disabilities (ID) who participate in Special Olympics (SO). This study included a nationally representative sample of 1,307 families and 579 athletes in the U.S., focusing on sport involvement over the lifespan and motives for participating and for leaving SO. Athletes with ID are similar to athletes without disabilities in that sport is a significant life experience. They participate in sport for fun (54%) and social inter-action (21%). Like athletes without disabilities, SO athletes leave sport because of changes in interest (38%) but also because of program availability (33%). These findings suggest that we continue to document the involvement of people with ID in sports and work to expand the sport opportunities available. (Contains 6 tables and 3 notes.)

The authors examined the academic characteristics of 140 elementary-aged students served under the category of emotional disturbance (ED) from schools that differed in income level, performance on state testing, and suspension rates. School income accounted for a large amount of the variance in the reading and math achievement of students with ED as measured by the Woodcock-Johnson III. However, relative academic performance (as measured by performance on state testing compared with same-school peers and teacher ratings of academic competence) was similar across school income levels. Implications for intervention research and eligibility practices for students with ED are discussed. (Contains 6 tables.)

Parent involvement is widely acknowledged to be a critical "best practice" in the education of young children with ASD. Despite its importance, no studies to date have systematically examined the relative influence of child, family, and school factors on the extent to which parents participate in the education of their children with ASD. In the present study, questionnaire and interview data collected from the mothers and teachers of 95 children receiving public school services for ASD were used to address this issue. Descriptively, wide variation was found in both type and intensity of mothers' educational involvement. Regression analyses showed involvement, both at school and at home, to be heavily influenced by the extent to which school staff actively encouraged, assisted, and provided opportunities for parent involvement. In addition, severity of child behavior problems was also found to exert a uniformly negative effect on intensity of mothers' educational involvement, while the influence of family resources and demand variables varied, depending on whether involvement occurred at school or at home. Implications of these findings for future research and for the support of parents seeking to participate in the learning and development of their children with ASD are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

The authors surveyed a national random sample of 5,837 middle school students on their attitudes toward the inclusion of peers with intellectual disabilities (ID). The national sample provided results that were accurate, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4%. Findings indicated that youth (a) have limited contact with students with ID in their classrooms and school; (b) perceive students with ID as moderately impaired rather than mildly impaired; (c) believe that students with ID can participate in nonacademic classes, but not in academic classes; (d) view inclusion as having both positive and negative effects; and (e) do not want to interact socially with a peer with ID, particularly outside school. Structural equation modeling showed that youths' perceptions of the competence of students with ID significantly influence their willingness to interact with these students and their support of inclusion. (Contains 2 figures and 8 tables.)

Information on age and nature of the onset of autism and other developmental disorders was obtained through review of parent completed developmental history; in addition information on the child's early development, diagnostic information, and information on parent characteristics was also obtained. In this relatively large series of cases the parents of children with autism were more likely than parents of children with other developmental disorders to report possible loss of developmental skills. However, the question of actual skill loss was complicated since in some cases parents also had reported even earlier developmental delays or a pattern more of developmental stagnation than clear loss of abilities. Only a few children exhibited a clear and unequivocal loss of developmental skills.

We combine two approaches to describe an activated carbon which contains micro- and mesopores. We propose a simple approach of packing individual three-dimensional rigid structures to represent microporous region of commercially available BAM-P109 activated carbon. Mesopores are represented by planar walls interacting via the standard Steele 10-4-3 potential assuming experimental pore-size distribution. The models are used to predict n -perfluorohexane adsorption at 273 K temperature. We used uncharged united atom model for n -perfluorohexane molecule. The non-bonded interactions were described by the Gordon potential model, with parameters adjusted to reproduce the Mie force field potential, which was designed to accurately represent vapour pressure of alkanes and perfluoroalkanes. Adsorption isotherm was calculated using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo method implemented in MCCCS Towhee. We show that predicted n -perfluorohexane loading at relative pressures of interest are significantly lower than the experimental ones. The underprediction is attributed to the low aromatic carbon interaction strength and sensitive calculations of chemical potential. Adjusted interaction parameter of aromatic carbon and chemical potential led to n -perfluorohexane adsorption that agreed well with the reported experimental values.

ABSTRACT: Objective: Primary paragangliomas of the thyroid gland are rare tumors with just 45 previously reported cases in the literature. While locally aggressive tumor behavior has been documented, there are no reported cases of a malignant thyroid paraganglioma.Methods: This report presents the case of a 73-year-old female who presented with a rapidly enlarging right thyroid mass.Results: At the time of initial resection, the mass had grossly invaded the trachea and esophagus and encased the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Central neck lymph node metastases were present. A right thyroid lobectomy with central neck dissection was performed, with a final histologic diagnosis of primary paraganglioma of the thyroid gland. Within 1 year, the patient showed local tumor recurrence that required a laryngeopharyngectomy with reconstruction. New cervical lymph node metastases had also developed, and within 1 year a solitary liver metastasis was identified and excised, confirming the malignant nature of the tumor.Conclusion: Thyroid paragangliomas are an extremely rare subset of thyroid tumors that have gained increasing recognition as a clinical entity in recent years. Recent case reports and a review of the literature emphasize that despite a tendency to display aggressive local behavior; distant metastatic spread was not reported for any of the 45 previously reported cases. This is the first case to show clearly malignant behavior in a thyroid primary paraganglioma with local recurrence as well as regional lymph node and distant tumor metastases. This case has important implications pertaining to patient postoperative management and emphasizes the importance of perioperative and postoperative surveillance for possible local recurrence or metastasis.

Comparison of teacher-assigned grades and Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores in English, math, and science for 736 eighth-graders reveals that MCAS hurts African-Americans and Latinos/as in math and girls in math and science. Equitability disparities indicate the need for caution in high-stakes testing; scores should be validated by other assessments. (Contains 135 references.) (SK)

A study involving 117 children with and without mental retardation in grades 1 through 5 found children with mental retardation had difficulty recognizing benign intention social cues that accompanied a negative event, had difficulty varying their social strategies to fit the social conflict, and often suggested appealing to authority. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

A study examined the ability of 56 children with learning problems and 56 typical children to resolve the social problems of whether to share limited resources with a peer. Only 15% of the dyads of children with learning problems shared, compared to 58% of typical children. (CR)