Highlights cross-national differences in school-to-work systems in Germany, the Netherlands, England, Wales, and the United States. Suggests that the root of many transition problems is the disconnections and tensions between the vocational education and training system and the labor market. (SK)

Discusses some of the issues associated with effective instruction for students with severe disabilities enrolled in general education classes. It is argued that developing a valid technology of instruction will require the field to reconceptualize our current model of teaching and learning for this group of students. (Author/CR)

Nine students (age 6-12) with severe disabilities were observed in their general and special education classrooms using a two-minute time sampling procedure. General education classrooms provided more instruction, utilized more whole class instruction, provided a comparable amount of one-to-one instruction, addressed academic content more, and…

A study demonstrated the effectiveness of a three-phase treatment package for determining setting preferences and for teaching three adults with severe mental retardation to express their choice between settings for similar leisure activities. Participants learned to use objects associated with different settings to communicate their choices.…

Reports findings from a national survey of 385 day support providers regarding conversion of resources from segregated services to supported employment. Approximately 23% of all agencies and 37% of agencies with both facility-based programs and supported employment indicate that they had converted resources to community-based employment.…

A self-evaluation training package consisting of goal-setting, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation of work productivity was implemented with four adult males with developmental disabilities enrolled in a community-based restaurant program. Each trainee's work productivity improved for each task as a function of the self-evaluation training…

Describes the Team Environmental Assessment Mapping System (TEAMS), a practical tool for inventorying the environmental demands that a student faces, while also mapping the social influences that drive or hinder a student's performance in those environments. A sample TEAMS map for an adolescent with Down syndrome is provided. (CR)

A study investigated whether 73 adults with mental retardation had difficulty understanding emotion-descriptive concepts and whether that difficulty can be attributed to difficulty with abstract concepts. Participants performed better on nonemotion than emotion concepts measures. There were no differences between abstract and nonabstract concepts…

The performance on a cognitive screening test of 37 children (ages 4-6) with mild mental retardation or learning disabilities was compared to their peers. The tasks constituting the initial version of the battery were evaluated in terms of their classification accuracy and yielded a set of five different cognitive tasks. (CR)

Three databases were analyzed to investigate the range and frequency of terms in the field of mental retardation/developmental disabilities. The most prevalent term over the last 15 years was "mentally retarded." The terms "cognitive impairment" and "developmental disabilities" have been used more frequently in the last five years. (Author/CR)

A study collected data on the quality of life and self-determination of 50 individuals with mental retardation to examine the contribution of self-determination to quality of life and the relationship between these constructs. Participants who reported a higher quality of life were also identified as more self-determined. (Author/CR)

A case study of a 38-year-old "feral child" was conducted to learn more about the speech and language development of children who received limited simulation in early development. Language training results indicated an increase in communicative attempts and nonverbal communication acts but limited increases in verbalizations. (Author/CR)

A study compared sociosexual attitudes of 31 adults with developmental disability, 15 with autism, and 16 with mental retardation, and 25 typical Canadians and 28 Americans. Most differences were contributed by the individuals with mental retardation who endorsed significantly fewer than 50% of sexual activities presented. (Author/CR)

This study discusses the successful activation of change process in the cognitive capacity of 71 institutionalized Israeli adults with mental retardation. The central instruments were the Comparison, Categorization, Spatial Orientation, and Temporal Relations sections of the Instrumental Enrichment program, designed to enhance cognitive and…

A study found simultaneous prompting procedures were effective in teaching environmental word identification to five students (ages 6-11) with moderate intellectual disabilities and that they were able to acquire additional instructive feedback stimuli presented on either a continuous or an intermittent presentation schedule, regardless of…