Spontaneous Cognitive Processes in Handicapped Children: (Disorders of Human Learning, Behavior, and Communication)

The thinking that began this book arose out of some dissatisfaction with the rela­ tively simplified, unidimensional model of development, which seems to have come to dominate the fields that address the needs of atypically developing chil­ dren. It seemed impossible to us that developmental differences could explain the range of learning and coping styles we have seen and read about in children iden­ tified as mentally retarded, slow learning, learning disabled, nonhandicapped, and gifted. If a typical model of development did not account for what children with handicaps to learning could do, when they would do it, and how they would accomplish it, such a model was not likely to imply anything important about how to intervene with and help them. Unfortunately, when we first began to examine this problem, turning away from a developmental model for interpreting atypical behavior meant turning toward a behaviorist one. This was not very satisfying either. Again the assumptions were bothersome. We were expected to accept that all children, this time at all ages as well as with all kinds of diagnoses, learned in essentially the same way with perhaps some variation in rate, reac­ tivity, reinforcement preferences, and, according to more liberal applications, expectancy. In our search for a more satisfying view of the atypical learner, we were lucky to be lost at the moment when cognitive psychology and systems theory were being found.

Table of Contents:
1 Cogito Ergo Sum.- Developmental Equivalence.- What Develops?.- Implications for Atypical Populations.- “Typical” Development.- Instruction Based on a Developmental Versus Difference Model.- 2 To Err Is Human, to Reorganize Divine.- Error Production as an Outcome of Data Reduction.- Error Production as Evidence of Cognitive Competence.- Error Detection and Correction.- “Error-Free” Learning and Passivity.- Error Commission and Regression.- Error Production as a Key to Assessment and Instruction.- Diagnosing Patterns of Correct and Incorrect Responses.- Examining the Nature of Incorrect Responses.- Summary.- 3 Self-Selected Strategies.- Strategic Behavior.- Strategic Behavior in Cognitively Impaired Versus Nonimpaired Populations.- Determinants of Strategic Behavior.- Metacognitive Passivity.- Misguided Attention.- Knowledge Structure and Attention.- Context and Attention.- Vagueness, Imprecision, and Strategic Behavior.- Environmental Contribution to Passivity and Imprecision.- Spontaneous Strategy Generation.- “Good” Strategies Redefined.- Conclusion.- 4 Man Is the Measure of All Things.- Measurement of Strategy Usage.- Direct Measures of Strategy Performance.- Memory.- Problem Solving.- Academic Skills.- Verbal Strategies.- Indirect Methods of Measurement.- The Adequacy of Verbal Reports.- Verbal Reports as Measures of Strategy Usage.- Group Setting as a Medium for Observing Strategic Behavior.- Conclusion.- 5 No Man Is an Island.- Evolution of Cognitive Processes Under Adult Guidance.- Peer Tutoring.- Group Interaction.- Social Skills of Learning-Disabled Children.- 6 How Can I Know What I Think Till I See What I Say?.- Group Condition.- Group and Individual Conditions.- Relationship Between Strategy Usage and Performance.- Metacognition.- GroupInteraction.- Responses to Different Stimulus Types.- Summary and Implications.- 7 Back to the Classroom.- Flexible Programming.- Social Cognition and Group Instruction.- Social Cognition and Apprenticeship.- Ceding Cognitive Control to the Child.- Adapting to the Child’s Characteristics.- Metacognitive Interventions.- Instructional Needs of Slow Learners.- Mainstreaming.- Conclusion.- Appendix A: Stimulus Materials.- Appendix B: Strategy Scoring System.- References.- Author Index.