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This paper presents the results of an intervention programme designed to promote the communication skills of a group of children with moderate learning difficulties. Thirty children were involved in a 12-week programme of supported peer-communication activities which aimed to improve the children's regulatory skills during peer interaction. By the end of the programme, the children were talking more, asking more appropriate questions and responding to ambiguous utterances more effectively. The results of the study demonstrate that a programme for children with learning difficulties in which pairs of children working together are encouraged to use and reflect on regulatory strategies can provide an effective context for intervention.

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This paper examines the effects of season of birth and gender on academic achievement and cognitive abilities in children attending moderate learning difficulty schools. Given the high preponderance of both boys and children born in summer attending special schools it is important to consider how well these children perform in relation to their peers. A multivariate analysis reveals that both boys and summer born children perform better on tests of intelligence, mathematical ability, and reading comprehension. Summer born children also perform better on a test of communication skills. Discriminant functions analysis reveals that for both gender and season of birth IQ is the major predictor variable followed by reading comprehension, mathematical ability and communication skill. For gender, IQ discriminates more successfully than the other variables, whereas with season of birth the relative sizes of the effects are more comparable. The results of the analysis are discussed in terms of the implications for the identification of children for placement in moderate learning difficulty schools.

Even after a relatively short intervention, which focused on the development of regulatory skills, significant improvements on a range of tasks were observed for a group of children with moderate learning difficulties.