The present review suggests that gifted and talented individuals exhibit personality characteristics of self-sufficiency/independence, conscientiousness, emotional control and perseverance. However, the combination of high intellectual ability and heightened sensitivity may cause problems for such individuals, resulting in social withdrawal in some cases.

The feelings of 305 senior high school students about the quality of their school life were measured by giving them the Quality of School Life inventory at spaced intervals as they progressed through Years 11 and 12. Their self-estimates of school work ability and their reasons for continuing at school were also assessed. A decline was found in the initially positive feelings that were associated with the content of their studies and with their success as students. Separately analysed for comparison were the responses of students who subsequently left school without completing Year 12. Implications are discussed in terms of the drive to improve the retention rate in the post-compulsory years of secondary education, and students' expectations of the demands of the senior curriculum.

Some recent evidence from both clinical and empirical studies has suggested that some cases of reading disability might be helped by the use of Irlen tinted lenses. Clinical work has been carried out in two special education centres, at Sydney CAE and at Hunter Institute of Higher Education. Four hundred and sixty five clients from these centres, all of whom had reading problems, and who had worn Irlen lenses fora minimum of 12 months were surveyed to assess their evaluation of the usefulness of the lenses for a variety of literacy-related difficulties. Ninety three percent indicated a definite improvement in these difficulties. Largest improvements were reported in amount of effort required to read, fluency of reading, concentration, and comprehension. In each factorsurveyed, more than 50% of respondents indicated definite improvements, including handwriting, spelling, tiredness, and self-confidence. Telephone checks with non-respondents indicated that the results are probably reliable for the whole of the population surveyed.

The present study examined the effects of repetition on the academic performance of students in grades one to five. Subjects (n = 122) were all selected by their schools for repetition at the end of the school year. Of these, 74 repeated the grade and the remaining 48 proceeded to the next grade because these students' parents rejected the schools' recommendations to repeat their children. All children were pre- and post-tested on a range of standardized, class-based and criterion-referenced tests to determine the academic effects of repetition and promotion on students.

Although the repeated group showed a significant improvement in place in grade, analysis of variance yielded very few differences between repeated and promoted students on the standardized academic measures, although trends favoured the promoted group. It was concluded that repetition is of limited benefit in enhancing academic performance, although the gains were sufficient to allow favourable comparisons of repeated students with their new peer groups, as measured by their place in grade, leading teachers to conclude that substantial improvements had occurred.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease which is experienced by a large number of Australian school children. Although these children are of comparable intelligence to their non-asthmatic peers, they generally achieve less well at school. In the paper we review the literature on the following factors in an attempt to explain the depressed educational achievements: 1) neurological damage resulting from anoxia during asthma attacks; 2) side effects of medication used to control asthma; 3) frequent absence from school, and 4) attitudes and expectations of teachers, parents and peers. Clearly more research is required to investigate the interaction between these factors.