The study measured social acceptance experienced by fourth through sixth-grade mentally retarded students who acted as tutors of their regular class peers. Results showed that tutors interacted with regular class peers more often than handicapped non-tutors and suggested that handicapped students would make more personal/social progress with…

A case study of a young woman in segregrated (handicapped-only) residential and educational environments identifies discrepancies between two human service agencies' stated philosophy of normalization and actual behavior in five areas: (1) prosthetic equipment, (2) home and classroom materials, (3) agency goals and individual programs, (4) agency…

Analyses of questionnaires on instructional practices answered by 67 teachers of trainable mentally retarded students and 45 teachers of profoundly mentally retarded students identified similarities and differences in seven categories: personal/professional information, professional preparation, classroom teaching activity, classroom management,…

The study examining effectiveness of prelanguage communication programming techniques on the development of imitative behaviors of three profoundly mentally handicapped students (10-21 years old) indicated that the procedures were effective and that the imitative behaviors generalized to other individuals. (Author/CL)

To study the relationship between differing amounts of practice and learning, four students with severe retardation were provided with either 10 or 30 opportunities per day to learn to discriminate and label parts of household appliances. Data revealed that for all students levels of accuracy were significantly higher in the 30 trial than 10 trial…

The article describes critical components of a transition planning system for students with severe handicaps, including coordinating transition planning on a local level, developing transition plans, preparing parents for transition planning, and coordination with adult service agencies. (CL)

All six students reached the 100% criterion preference level under simulated training conditions and three Ss immediately generalized to the actual community environment. Although the skills that were acquired in the simulated environment by the remaining three Ss did not transfer immediately to the actual community, fewer in vivo trials were…

While all six severely retarded adults increased their work output over the 35 18-minute sesions, it was concluded that the reinforcement contingencies were influential in only four Ss. It was speculated that auditory stimulation may be a more potent motivator than visual stimulation. (Author/CL)

The authors point out the lack of scientific support for the effectiveness of "patterning," leading the child through a series of exercises designed to improve neurological organization. (SB)

The paper reviews the disadvantages, as well as the advantages, of minimum competency testing (MCT) with mentally retarded high school students. Among disadvantages pointed out are the discrepancy between teaching methods as testing methods and the unproven relevance of MCT for adult success. (SB)

The author describes the parent training model as a viable alternative to delivering services to train parents of handicapped children. (SB)

A survey examined admission barriers, client and disability variables, program content, and levels of school/agency cooperation in adult activity, work activity, and sheltered workshops in a midwestern state which has a representative urban-suburban-rural profile. (Author/SB)

The purpose of the study was twofold: to determine the kinds of money skills attained by a sample of 100 educable mentally retarded (EMR) children and to construct and field-test a portion of a coin skills curriculum which was judged to be at an appropriate level for elementary age EMR students. (Author/SB)

The Woodhaven Center (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) classroom prevocational program for its severely handicapped population is described. Based on proven instructional techniques and a theoretical hierarchy of learning, the program offers guidelines for teaching initial skill acquisition of vocational tasks and procedures for maintaining acceptable…

The study involving 360 Pennsylvania teachers was designed to identify factors which motivate job acceptance among teachers of severely and profoundly mentally retarded children. The responses of 235 teachers indicated that challenge and practicum experiences were the two most prevalent motivational factors underlying job acceptance. (Author)