The education of children with behavioural difficulties is under scrutiny from various quarters. The provision of specialised school environments is being questioned, at the same time as there is pressure to minimise the exclusion of disruptive pupils. This study looked at the rate of psychiatric disorder that was prevalent in a school for emotionally and behaviourally disordered (EBD) pupils, and found, using DSM III-R criteria, that 24 % of the sample had depression, 11 % had overanxiousness, and 70 % had a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity (ADHD). Educational attainment assessment showed that 75 % had a reading age that was at least 2 years below their chronological age. These results suggest that such settings are dealing with a very disturbed group of youngsters.

Individuals tend to be overconfident when making retrospective judgments about the quality of their decisions. However, few studies have focused on age differences in estimates of decision quality. In the present experiment performance estimates were provided by task-trained and untrained young and old individuals following completion of a series of complex financial decisions. Confidence levels were assessed by examining discrepancies between perceived and actual solution quality. Performance estimates of all 4 groups contained appreciable estimation error; however, no group showed a substantial directional bias toward underconfidence or overconfidence. Young trainees were significantly less confident in the quality of their decisions than young novices, but a comparable training effect was not found among older individuals. One's knowledge of the task, prior decision-making experience, and level of self-esteem may combine to determine the accuracy of one's retrospective performance estimates.

The education of children with behavioural difficulties is under scrutiny from various quarters. The provision of specialised school environments isbeing questioned and, at the same time, there is pressure to minimise the exclusion of disruptive pupils. The study reported in this article lookedat a group of children whose behaviour had prompted placement in a school for emotionally and behaviourally disordered (EBD) pupils. The results showed the overall rate of psychiatric disturbance in the group was 86% and, in particular, that the rate of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was 70%. These findings suggest that a significant minority of disruptive pupils may have their difficulties compounded by the presence of ADHD, and raises the question of whether specific screening processes should be established for such pupils.

The education of children with behavioural difficulties is under scrutiny from various quarters. The provision of specialised school environments is being questioned, at the same time as there is pressure to minimise the exclusion of disruptive pupils. This study looked at the rate of psychiatric disorder that was prevalent in a school for emotionally and behaviourally disordered (EBD) pupils, and found, using DSM III-R criteria, that 24 % of the sample had depression, 11 % had overanxiousness, and 70 % had a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity (ADHD). Educational attainment assessment showed that 75 % had a reading age that was at least 2 years below their chronological age. These results suggest that such settings are dealing with a very disturbed group of youngsters.

No abstract