Helping Children Develop Their Full Potential.

Helping a child attain his full psychological potential consists of providing him with opportunities to learn in both natural and instructional settings. Learning is defined in the psychological literature either as a hypothetical mental ability or as a relationship between repeated stimulation and changes in performance. Both definitions are rejected. There are two implications of this analysis for children with problems in self-care, language, school subjects, and social behavior. First, it is more fruitful to refer to these children as children with specific problems than with learning disorders. Second, it suggests that findings from the experimental literature can readily be applied to helping the teacher help the child. (CK)