Can infants’ orientation to social stimuli predict later joint attention skills?

From the moment infants are born, they seem to prefer orienting to social stimuli, over objects and non‐social stimuli. This preference lasts throughout adulthood and is believed to play a crucial role in social‐communicative development. By following up a group of infants at the age of 6, 8, and 12 months, this study explored the role of social orienting in the early development of joint attention skills. The expected association between social orienting and joint attention was partially confirmed. Social orienting in real‐life photographs of everyday situations was not related to later joint attention skills, however fixation to the eyes in a neutral face was related to response to joint attention skills, and fixation to the eyes in a dynamic video clip of a talking person was predictive of initiating joint attention skills. Several alternative interpretations of the results are discussed.     

How do included and excluded students with SEBD function socially and academically after 1,5 year of special education services?

ABSTRACT

The present study tested three conflicting hypotheses as to how students with social/emotional/behavioural difficulties (SEBD), who showed similar social-emotional, behavioural and academic functioning prior to placement, function socially and academically after they have received additional support either in inclusive regular education or in exclusive special education. Thirty-six included and 15 excluded students with SEBD participated. We collected data from students and teachers with classroom surveys, individual testing sessions with students with SEBD, and from application files. Using Bayesian statistics, our results suggest that excluded students are better socially embedded in exclusive special education and that they perform better academically than comparable included students with SEBD. Special education services in exclusive settings may thus afford certain benefits to some students with SEBD, not typically found in regular education, which can be considered a first indication that there may be valid counterarguments against the ‘inclusion for all’ perspective on educational needs.