The article describes Project LINKS (Linking Interagencies and New Knowledge Systems) at Northern Illinois University, a competency-based program which prepares trainers at the graduate level for infant and toddler interventions. The program offers extensive field-based experiences and collaborative links with the university, other agencies, and…

This speech to a 1990 Publishers' Conference examines the relationship between special education and regular education, with emphasis on implications for publishers of insructional materials concerning relevance (content issues) and access (format issues). Also noted is the suitability of special education as a testing ground for instructional…

This paper compares segregated, integrated, and community-based environments for instructing students with severe, multiple handicaps. Advantages and disadvantages are reviewed, recommendations for selection of suitable instructional environments are offered, and essential criteria for the evaluation of instruction in the various environments are…

Adolescent trainable mentally handicapped students (n=29) completed a vocational interest inventory, and their parents and teachers of 29 adolescent trainable mentally handicapped students rated their expectations for the students' vocational futures. Results indicated little correspondence between inventory scores and ratings but greater…

The study examined empathy in 34 Canadian teachers of moral education at the elementary level. Teachers were observed in the classroom, evaluated for their decoding ability, and evaluated for their capacity to anticipate pupils' responses to a self-concept scale. Teachers' predictive abilities were highly correlated with the Carkhuff Index of…

The verbal encoding ability of 24 students (ages 14-20) with learning disabilities (LD) was compared to that of 24 non-learning-disabled subjects. LD subjects did not show a release from proactive interference, suggesting that such students are less likely to encode the phonetic features of words or use a phonetic code in short-term memory.…

The article presents a teacher training model based on the Agricultural Extension Service Agent Model to meet the educational needs of handicapped students in rural areas. The model involves training regular classroom teachers to become in-house specialists on maintaining the mildly handicapped student in the regular classroom. (DB)

A model is offered which identifies those who benefit and the benefits of special education. The model uses impact analysis rather than benefit-cost analysis and involves establishing evaluative techniques, developing novel metrics, and gathering baseline evaluation data to ascertain the social, economic, and personal benefits of special…

The article reviews the development of mainstreaming for children with disabilities in Canada and reports on a survey of 24 faculties and schools of education in Canada. Among conclusions was that institutions are following a policy of gradualness in preparing teachers for mainstreaming. (DB)

This study, involving a 10-year-old child with cerebral palsy and autism, found that the use of headphones resulted in an increase in on-task behavior whether stimuli were presented in an audiovisual mode, an audio-only mode, or a visual-only mode. Preference was for the auditory only or the mixed audiovisual stimuli. (DB)

This review examines non-North American ideas about reading difficulties. Noted is the success of such tutorial programs as Reading Recovery, used in Australia, the United States, and New Zealand. The potential of a Vygotskian perspective on assessment and teaching for children experiencing reading difficulties is outlined. (Author/DB)

The article reviews cognitive psychology's contributions to understanding the development of reading skills. Key concepts are phonological and linguistic awareness, schemata, learning strategies, metacognition, and learning as a social interaction. (Author/DB)

This study investigated the relationship between temperament and cognitive modifiability with 92 academically successful but disadvantaged Black South African adolescents. The Task Orientation and Personal-Social Flexibility temperament dimensions were directly related to learning, academic performance, and cognitive change. (Author/DB)

The study interviewed 73 Australian young people with a range of disabilities who had completed their school program in 1985. Subjects expressed their ideas concerning successful transition from school to adult life including the need for a planned transition process, a job-related school curriculum, and structured procedures to facilitate…

Comparison of 79 normally hearing and 42 hearing-impaired adolescents found no differences regarding the intensity of their remembered positive experiences. Hearing-impaired subjects reported more positive interpersonal experiences, rarely experienced positive experiences "with self," and showed less desire for transpersonal commitment, even with…