This study briefly outlines the results of a pilot project within the BowenSpecial Education District directed to the training of parents as effectivelisteners of children's oral reading. The study assesses the relevantlistening behaviours of two parents before, during and after being involvedin a Parent Helper's Reading Program. The effectiveness of the program isgenerally evident from the observed improvement in listening behavioursdemonstrated by the parents. Furthermore, the increased competency inlistening behaviours by parents is paralleled by a simultaneous improvementin oral reading and comprehension performance by the target children. Also,the children's generalisation of skills from home to school is noted by bothparents and teachers. Overall, this study suggests two significantimplications to be considered within the context of existing readingprograms utilising adult helpers. Firstly, the use of untrained helperswithin school reading programs needs to be questioned. Secondly, theeffectiveness of parent helper programs is dependent upon the level offollow-up and monitoring made available to program participants.

While the limitations of generalising from a project using only two subjectsis realised, the results suggest important areas for futureinvestigations.

In this case-study, an educational psychologist trained three primaryteachers to give feedback to three 11-12 year-old low progress readers whowere each tutoring one low progress classmate, with the Pause, Prompt andPraise procedures. After themselves learning the Pause, Prompt and Praiseprocedures the teachers were provided with written instructions, and thentrainer feedback on how to provide feedback for the peer tutors. Results ofthe eight week program indicated substantial gains for both tutees andtutors on the Dunedin Teachers College Informal Prose Inventory, and on thenumber of successive book levels read to criterion. With the writteninstructions alone, teachers use very intrusive prompts when giving feedbackto peer tutors. However, when teachers also received feedback on their ownperformance they used far less intrusive forms of prompts, encouragingtutors to remember and explain their own tutoring behaviours and implementthe procedures accurately without becoming dependent on teacher support orsupervision.

The social integration (sociometric status) of 22 mainstreamed handicappedhigh school children was compared with that of their non-handicappedpeers.

Results indicated that in friendship and work oriented situations thehandicapped were less socially accepted than their nonhandicapped peers,more frequently identified as stars, and female handicapped students weremore popular and accepted than the male handicapped.

A limitation of the study was its small sample size.

This paper investigates the effects of factors which socially disadvantagethe young unemployed. Studies on school and work experiences ofdisadvantaged youth make it clear there is no single problem of a cycle ofdisadvantage. Factors such as chances at birth, house and neighbourhood,family circumstances, ill-health and physical development, and schoolexperience and parental interest, crucially influence the process of growingup. The author questions what happens to the needs of the individual whenunemployment causes a sudden change in the individual's habitual socialstructure.

Personal construct psychology enabled teacher stress to be conceptualised interms of their perceptions of their ability to cope with stressors.Different degrees of support were seen in terms of the teachers' allocationof dependencies. Pre- and post-intervention questionnaires and FOCUS-ed (orcluster analysed) Dependency (individual and mode) grids were used to revealand manipulate 11 teachers' resources and then to monitor how their grouplevels of stress were affected. Although the study reflected an idiographicapproach rather than a substantive pattern, stress was reduced for thehighly stressed, maintained for the moderately stressed and increased forthe low stressed. Since using a not coping rather than a coping perspectivecharacterised the distressed group before the intervention, teachers mayneed to emphasise a more affirmative stance. Once teachers establish whatthey construe as stressful and what support they can use, they are in a moreinformed position to engage in stress management or maintenance.

The concepts of Freud's Psychoanalytic Therapy are well-known toprofessional helpers, and many of his principles and techniques (e.g. the“Freudian slip”, Dream Analysis) are familiar to laypersons. For manyreasons, training courses for tertiary counsellors often focus onhumanistic, existential or behavioural approaches to counselling, withpsychodynamic approaches relegated to the minor league. This paperhighlights the attempts to raise the consciousness of postgraduatecounselling students to the significance of Freudian concepts in counsellingand therapy, through a teaching unit developed by the author. The rationale,objectives, content, process, and student evaluations of the course arediscussed.

While most counselling approaches have an established foundation inpsychological theory, few can claim to provide a window through which onecan observe and comprehend contemporary society. This essay considers therelevance of one theory, Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology, in terms ofits ability to address the challenges and issues being confronted by peopletoday. Herein, we look at concepts that are infrequently considered bycounsellors, but nevertheless, influence the development of our thoughts andbehaviour.