Academic Careers of Gifted Women

As part of a larger study concerning academically gifted college women, gifted freshman women who graduated (723) were compared with those who did not graduate (526) on certain academic variables. Graduates took an average of 12.6 quarters to complete their degrees. Average length of attendance before departure for Nongraduates was 5.8 quarters. Graduation with honors was achieved by 51.9 per cent of the Graduates. Graduates and Nongraduates differed significantly in GPA (3.06 to 2.50), contact with the Counseling Bureau (43.6 to 30.9 per cent), and in major fields of study. More Graduates had Liberal Arts (CLA) “social science,” CLA “interdepartmental and double,” Education, and Home Economics majors. More Nongraduates had CLA “English, linguistics, and languages,” CLA “natural science and mathematics,” and Business Administration majors. These results are discussed in relation to findings of the larger study concerning personality characteristics and vocational interests of gifted women, and a follow-up study of the Nongraduates.     

THE FACILITATIVE EFFECTS OF INCIDENTAL TEACHING ON PREPOSITION USE BY AUTISTIC CHILDREN

In a comparison of incidental teaching and traditional training procedures, three language-delayed autistic children were taught expressive use of prepositions to describe the location of preferred edibles and toys. Traditional highly structured training and incidental teaching procedures were used in a classroom setting, and generalization was assessed during free-play sessions. Results clearly indicate that incidental teaching promoted greater generalization and more spontaneous use of prepositions. These findings have important implications for language programming and teacher training, suggesting that incidental teaching should be included as a standard component of language development curricula for autistic and other developmentally delayed children.