This book presents the case studies of children who are identified as emotionally disturbed as well as those labeled as learning disabled or educable mentally retarded from both a deviancy and ecological perspective for a more complete understanding of the children and the labeling process.

Ever since Darwin, animal behavior has intrigued and perplexed human observers. The elaborate mating rituals, lavish decorative displays, complex songs, calls, dances and many other forms of animal signaling raise fascinating questions. To what degree can animals communicate within their own species and even between species? What evolutionary purpose do such communications serve? Perhaps most importantly, what can animal signaling tell us about our own non-verbal forms of communication? In The Handicap Principle, Amotz and Ashivag Zahavi offer a unifying theory that brilliantly explains many previously baffling aspects of animal signaling and holds up a mirror in which ordinary human behaviors take on surprising new significance. The wide-ranging implications of the Zahavis' new theory make it arguably the most important advance in animal behavior in decades. Based on 20 years of painstaking observation, the Handicap Principle illuminates an astonishing variety of signaling behaviors in animals ranging from ants and ameba to peacocks and gazelles. Essentially, the theory asserts that for animal signals to be effective they must be reliable, and to be reliable they must impose a cost, or handicap, on the signaler. When a gazelle sights a wolf, for instance, and jumps high into the air several times before fleeing, it is signaling, in a reliable way, that it is in tip-top condition, easily able to outrun the wolf. (A human parallel occurs in children's games of tag, where faster children will often taunt their pursuer before running). By momentarily handicapping itself--expending precious time and energy in this display--the gazelle underscores the truthfulness of its signal. Such signaling, the authors suggest, serves the interests of both predator and prey, sparing each the exhaustion of a pointless chase. Similarly, the enormous cost a peacock incurs by carrying its elaborate and weighty tail-feathers, which interfere with food gathering, reliably communicates its value as a mate able to provide for its offspring. Perhaps the book's most important application of the Handicap Principle is to the evolutionary enigma of animal altruism. The authors convincingly demonstrate that when an animal acts altruistically, it handicaps itself--assumes a risk or endures a sacrifice--not primarily to benefit its kin or social group but to increase its own prestige within the group and thus signal its status as a partner or rival. Finally, the Zahavis' show how many forms of non-verbal communication among humans can also be explained by the Handicap Principle. Indeed, the authors suggest that non-verbal signals--tones of voice, facial expressions, body postures--are quite often more reliable indicators of our intentions than is language. Elegantly written, exhaustively researched, and consistently enlivened by equal measures of insight and example, The Handicap Principle illuminates virtually every kind of animal communication. It not only allows us to hear what animals are saying to each other--and to understand why they are saying it--but also to see the enormously important role non-verbal behavior plays in human communication.

Cognitive therapy is a well known and widely used means of helping depressed patients, but is only now beginning to be extended to other client groups. Cognitive Therapy for Learning Disability contains contributions from well known and highly experienced practitioner researchers about the theoretical and practical issues surrounding the application of cognitive therapy to this special client group. Since cognitive therapy is usually understood to consist mainly of talking and introspection, the communication difficulties, challenging behaviours and the whole question of self-regulation make CBT for learning disabled people a challenging and fascinating topic. Cognitive Therapy for Learning Disability provides a wealth of practical examples for training and will be invaluable to clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and all researchers and practitioners who deal with learning disabled people in their daily lives.

The debate about special needs provision has increased dramatically over the last 15 years, however, despite the widespread concern over both learning and behavioural difficulties, there have been few attempts to analyse in detail the process of assessment by which children are being identified as having special educational needs. Drawing upon research carried out by the authors, this book fills that gap by examining the process in detail. It considers the assessment process itself and how it affects and is affected by other areas of school policy - in some cases causing tension and conflict such as parental participation, the use and allocation of resources and multi-professional decision-making. A feature of the book is its analysis of the impact of the National Curriculum and the local management of schools (LMS) provision for special needs.

The public schools have taken on increasing responsibility over the last decade for providing in-school educational services to chil dren with low-incidence handicaps, children who, not very many years ago, would have been relegated to custodial care or limited to care only in the home. With the increasing responsibility for educating these children has come recognition that few of us have the requisite knowledge or skills to deliver high-quality services to these chil dren. University programs are providing more staff, but the existing staff must also be trained. We have been involved for several years, with the special education branch of the Nebraska Department of Edu cation in the provision of in-service training in the early identifi cation and assessment of handicapping conditions, when we realized an even greater need for training regular classroom teachers, administra tors, and psychologists in addition to early childhood special educa tion personnel about the nature of low-incidence handicaps and how they might be dealt with in the public school setting. Knowing the enormity and the expense of such an undertaking, we tenuously ap proached the State Department. They too were cognizant of this need and welcomed our ideas. Jan Thelen and her capable staff then took to coordinating the planning with us and the Nebraska Department of Education provided the fundings.

Disability studies in education is a provocative and innovative field of social inquiry that challenges standard ways of thinking about disability in education, practices that serve to exclude disabled people from equal educational opportunity, and policies that support or drive inequality. This book brings together the best disability studies in education scholars to address the pressing questions facing the field. It provides an introduction to the field for the newcomer, a sharp challenge to the status quo in special and general education, and a map to understanding the serious disability issues confronting education today.