Davies and Fletcher (2001) reported on the practice of pre-primary grade repetition in Western Australia. The current study examines the longer-term academic and social outcomes for children who participated in the 2001 study. Its purpose was to determine whether significant longer-term differences existed between children who had repeated pre-primary, children who were considered at risk of not coping in year 1, and a control group of children who were considered competent at the start of year 1. The differences between the literacy levels, self-concept, and social skills of the 3 groups (ṉ = 33) were examined at the end of year 2. The competent group had significantly better literacy skills than the at-risk group, while the retained group lay midway between the two groups on these measures. No significant differences were found between the 3 groups on measures of socio-emotional development. The implications of these findings for school policy on grade repetition are discussed.

The present study examined sensitivity to kinaesthetic information for fifty-one girls aged 9 to 10 years. Girls with competitive sporting experience were divided into a gymnastics group, ball-skills group and a combined (gymnastic and ball-skills) group. A non-athlete control group was also included. Baseline measures of general motor ability were obtained using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Henderson and Sugden, 1992) and measures of sensitivity to kinaesthetic information were obtained using the Kinaesthetic Acuity Test (KAT) [Livesey and Parkes, 1995]. Results revealed a moderate but significant correlation between motor proficiency and kinaesthetic acuity. A stronger finding was the ability of the Kinaesthetic Acuity Test (KAT) to predict the motor performance of girls with high and low kinaesthetic acuity within the sample. High kinaesthetic acuity predicted significantly better motor proficiency and low kinaesthetic acuity predicted significantly poorer motor proficiency. Results further indicated that kinaesthetic acuity did not differ as a function of specific sporting experience.

The acquisition of social competence is an important developmental task for children. This review examines how children's characteristics and environmental factors contribute to children's achievement of social competence. Environmental factors are addressed through Bronfenbrenner's (1999) ecological systems model of the microsystem, mesosystem and exosystem. The microsystem includes the home environment with parent-parent, parent-child and sibling relationships. The mesosystem includes the school environment with peer and teacher relationships. Finally, the exosystem incorporates indirect environments such as parent work, economic status and the media. Issues of reciprocal effects are addressed and the suggestion is made that social competence is the result of a pattern of experiences rather than one or two major causes. It is recommended that future research focus on children's experiences that have lasting effects.

This study investigated the conflicting interests of the different client groups of Victorian school psychologists. A questionnaire on the role of the school psychologist was constructed and administered to 97 Victorian State school staff from two primary schools and two secondary schools. Fifteen role activities undertaken by psychologists were analysed according to their perceived importance, effectiveness and desirability. Traditional role activities were compared with innovative role activities that were being encouraged by Victorian Government policy. School staff perceived traditional role activities as significantly more important, effectively undertaken and more desired than innovative role activities. Perceptions of the effectiveness of the school psychologist were affected by the position that responding staff held within schools. Furthermore, the more frequently the reported interaction between psychologists and service users occurred, the more school psychologists were perceived as effective. Primary school staff differed from secondary school staff in their perceptions of desired role activities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the management of different client needs, communication with school staff about role discrepancies, and future directions.

Utilising a comparison research design of mothers involved in fostering (N = 28) and their peers (N = 28), the major findings were that within the fostering group, those who had been fostering the longest had the lowest sense of efficacy, reflecting that the experience of providing foster care eroded parents' sense of their own skill. In terms of attachment to the children, the data suggested that foster carers may resist becoming too close to the children in their care in order to limit the emotional cost of subsequent separation. Importantly, there was no significant correlation between the length of time in providing foster care and marital satisfaction, which supports the notion that providing foster care does not, in itself, cause marital stress. While formal support services were more utilised by foster carers there was some indication that this group is not well integrated into the broader community. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that over the long-term providing fostering care has some negative consequences for the carers in terms of their self-confidence. Agencies designated to work with carers need to consider proactive strategies to reduce this consequence.

The present study aimed to trial the effectiveness of 10 newly developed brief vignettes portraying typical interactions between staff and people with intellectual disabilities in residential care settings to assess the knowledge and understanding of staff about choice diversity, pre- and post-attendance at a staff training workshop. A total of 29 residential staff completed the Vignette Rating Scale and a knowledge questionnaire pre- and post-training. A t- test conducted on the vignettes revealed that respondents identified fewer choices in the post-test vignettes compared to the pre-test vignettes. Results showed no significant difference between the pre- and post-test data on the knowledge questionnaire. The questionnaire revealed a high level of knowledge about choice prior to and following training. The vignettes, however, proved effective in measuring changes in awareness of choice diversity among residential staff following participation in a staff training workshop.