The increasing tendency of immigration and forced migration practices around the world has made countries’ populations culturally and linguistically diverse. Australia is considered one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Consequently, the proportion of school-aged children with different culture and language is also increasing. Thus, school psychologists and guidance counsellors face the challenge of designing fair assessment practices and sound interventions for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students who experience difficulties with their learning. Although many multicultural countries have extensive research regarding the assessment of learning difficulties in CALD students, Australia lacks this research. This study explored the most common assessment strategies that school psychologists and guidance counsellors usually implement in their assessment of CALD students. These results were then compared to a best practice model from the literature. In order to understand the current practices of school psychologists and counsellors in Australia who have assessed CALD children, a survey was administered to 34 school psychologists and counsellors. It was found that the reported strategies and protocols were very close to the ones proposed by experts, which was an unexpected outcome of this study. Implications for school psychologists and counsellors are discussed.

What Australian psychologists currently learn about specific learning disorders (SLDs) through postgraduate-level training is not clear. Accordingly, the current Australia-wide study analysed 800 postgraduate psychology unit handbook entries to identify which courses teach about SLD and what they teach in this area. Only 2.38% of the identified units explicitly indicated SLD-related content, with 0.38% solely dedicated to SLD content. Descriptive analyses revealed differences in labels used for SLD. Thematic analyses identified five areas of knowledge and skills across SLD units including assessment, intervention, theory and empirical evidence, developmental and cultural awareness and sensitivity, and interpersonal communication. The present findings can inform future refinements to university-level psychology programs across Australia by highlighting the gaps and needs in psychology training.

This study investigated how teachers who support children with learning difficulties utilise psychologists’ reports in their teaching practice. Previous research has examined teachers’ preferences for how reports should be written, rather than how they might be used. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews with 12 teachers (seven primary, four high school and one preschool teacher) were undertaken and followed up with member checks and interrater reliability. Findings suggested that while the teachers valued the recommendations section of the report, they were also interested in other sections, particularly information about the student's background. Simultaneously, teachers used information from reports selectively in relation to their own professional knowledge and in collaboration with other stakeholders. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.

Attributions of laziness, reflected in teacher comments such as ‘Just try harder and you will shine’, may mask specific cognitive, learning, attentional or emotional problems that could explain low motivation in some children. This paper reports findings from an investigation of 20 children, aged 7 to 10 years, who were regarded as lazy by their parents and teachers. Questionnaire measures provided evidence of low levels of motivation and classroom engagement. Psychometric assessments revealed the presence of a range of difficulties including phonologically based learning disabilities and significant problems with attention in 17 of the 20 children. The paper concludes that the special needs of an unknown number of children may be overlooked because they are simply presumed to be lazy.

This study investigated the longitudinal stability of sociometric classification in two groups of children aged 8 to 10 years over a 2-year period. Two simple, but sensitive and valid forced-choice sociometric measures were completed by 41 children with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) and 375 mainstream children. On both occasions and on both measures (one using a ‘‘work with’’ and one a ‘‘play with’’ sociometric criterion) MLD pupils were significantly less likely to be classified as popular and more likely to be classified as rejected. Over the 2-year period just over half of the children, whether MLD or mainstream, were classified in the same sociometric category. However, the stability coefficients for the rejected and popular sociometric status groups were found to be higher in the included sample than in the mainstream sample. The results of this study are compared with previous longitudinal studies in the area that have focused on mainstream pupils, and implications for the use of sociometric measures in evaluating the outcomes of inclusion are discussed.

This paper argues for the scientific utility of the concept “intelligence”. In the first section three common arguments against the validity of general intelligence are discussed and dismissed. The second section presents the evidence in favour of the proposition that individual differences in IQ may be based on differences in speed of information processing. However, the third section shows that executive functions, particularly inhibitory processes, represent a more likely basis for the development of intelligence. The theory of the minimal cognitive architecture underlying intelligence and development (Anderson, 1992a) shows how speed and executive functioning might represent two dimensions to g—one an individual differences (within age) dimension based on speed and the other a developmental dimension based on changing executive functioning. In the fourth section this theory is used to generate new insights on the nature of intellectual disability and specific cognitive deficits and to make practical suggestions for educational intervention for low-IQ children.

This paper describes, in a humourous way, some of the frustrations, joys, pleasures and pains of a European psychologist working in a hospital in the People's Republic of China. It tells tales of families from distant fields in the remote hinterland and from the more urban communities and shows how these compare and contrast with similar situations in the U.K. Parents love their children whether in Guangzhou or Glasgow and this paper illustrates these cross-cultural connections.

The ability to distinguish serious from playful fighting by two groups of children with learning disabilities (LD) (mean age = 9.3 and 11.8 years) and non-LD children (mean age = 10.1 years) was examined. Children with LD were generally able to make this distinction, with older children being more accurate. However, the performance of children with LD was not as high as that of non-LD children: they used a smaller range of criteria; some criteria were used significantly less; and they were much more likely not to give any reason for the judgements made. On the other hand, the order in frequency of those criteria cited was similar for both non-LD children and children with LD. Physical actions of the participants, and inference about actions and/or intent were the most frequently cited criteria. These findings indicate that although children with LD use fewer social cues, and are less accurate in making judgements about the nature of behavioural episodes, the acquisition of the meaning of particular cues may follow the same sequence as for non-LD children. Possible delays in the social cognitive development of children with LD, and their implications for the social adjustment of these children, are discussed.

Open almost any recent social work magazine, or child protection text, and some reference to the abuse of disabled children will be included. Yet awareness of abuse within this group has resulted from a relatively recent growth of interest on the part of psychologists and social work and child protection professionals. Previously, sociocultural and political factors contributed to an otherwise muted response to research dating back to the 1960s, which clearly documents abuse of children who have an impairment or “developmental disability” of some kind. Reviewing this research reveals as much about society's reaction to disability and to disabled children, as it does about the abuse itself. This Annotation presents research in relation to three issues: (1) prevalence of abuse of disabled children; (2) responding to abuse; and (3) preventing abuse.

In 1985, Gualtieri and Hicks proposed the immunoreactive theory to explain the higher prevalence of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders in males. The theory claimed that male fetuses are more antigenic to mothers, resulting in increased immunologic attack on the developing central nervous system, and increased probability of atypical brain development. Individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) provide a unique situation in which to investigate this theory. We evaluated the parent-reported prevalence of five developmental problems (stuttering, other speech problems, hyperactivity, attention deficit, and reading problems) in two groups: 154 individuals ages 8–20 years born to women with SLE, drawn from six cities, and 154 controls of comparable age and sex whose mothers did not have SLE. Controls were drawn from a comparison group ascertained from randomly selected schools in one of the cities. Questions about handedness, immune disorders, and pregnancy and birth complications were also evaluated. Children of SLE mothers were shown to have more evidence of developmental difficulties, immune related disorders, and nonrighthandedness. For developmental problems, these findings were most marked in male children of SLE mothers. These results suggest that maternal immunoreactivity, as represented by women with SLE, may present a special risk factor for subsequent learning difficulties in their children, particularly males. (JINS, 1997, 3, 370–376.)

People with learning difficulties are now surviving into old age and more and more of them are being resettled from long-stay hospitals. The main purpose of this article is to examine some of the key barriers facing, and dilemmas involved in, the provision of community-based services to this newly emerging user group. The findings of some recent field research on older people with learning difficulties who have been resettled into the community are used to illustrate the challenges facing service providers. Particular reference is made to the impact of age discrimination and traditional differences between service specialisms. The article shows that both official definitions of need in old age and the aspirations of the service responses to those needs have been artificially constructed in very narrow terms, especially when compared with the principled approach to service provision for younger people with learning difficulties. In conclusion, therefore, it is argued that the principles underpinning services for people with learning difficulties, such as normalisation, should be applied to older people as well.