Three fifth grade students with learning disabilities were taught to recognize multisyllabic basal vocabulary words using constant time delay in a small-group instructional arrangement and were assessed on ability to recognize, spell, and define both their own target words and observational words. The procedure was effective in establishing…

This article compares the inclusive schools movement and the Regular Education Initiative in terms of advocates, goals, tactics, and understanding of and links to general education. The article finds that the inclusive schools movement has become increasingly strident, and its perspective has become increasingly insular and disassociated from…

This article discusses issues in referral and special education instruction for students from language-minority groups. It discusses inadequacies in assessment and placement; development of effective and feasible instructional strategies through collaboration between bilingual education and special education; and potential solutions involving both…

Young adults (n=391) with and without deafness and their parents were interviewed 3-4 years after high school. Results indicated that parents and both groups of young people were relatively consistent in how they responded to the same questions, with more agreement in the agency assistance and community adjustment domains than in the high school…

High school graduates in regular (n=280) and special education (n=223) and their parents were interviewed. Parent-student agreement percentages were high for the variables of attending postsecondary school, employment status, type of residence, marital status, and number of children. Low agreement rates were obtained for salary level, hours…

This study examined characteristics of students with disabilities who participated in Minnesota's open enrollment, reasons for participation, information sources, and the decision-making process. Surveys of 347 parents revealed 3 primary reasons for transferring their children: special education needs being better met, more personal attention from…

This paper reviews studies that have used instructional variables as nonaversive interventions for problem behaviors of individuals with severe disabilities. These include student choice of task, task variation, pace of instruction, interspersal of high probability tasks, partial versus whole task training, decreasing task difficulty, and a…

This article integrates literature from counseling, rehabilitation, multicultural education, and special education to explain the importance of life-span considerations, including the preschool and early school years, and the life-space factors of family, culture, and community. Principles for transition interventions which promote empowerment are…

This study used path analysis to examine the effects of work-related factors--including principal support, stress, role problems, job satisfaction, and commitment--on 542 Virginia special educators' expressions of intent to stay in teaching. The study concluded that these work-related variables should be included in strategies for retaining…

Interviews with 536 families (White, Hispanic, and American Indian) of infants and toddlers with developmental problems indicated parental needs for more and better information and indicated the importance of medical doctors as a source of information, individualizing information for different ethnic groups, and identifying unique strategies to…

Three matched groups--hearing mother-hearing child, hearing mother-deaf child, and deaf mother-deaf child--were videotaped. Hearing mothers of deaf children were less likely to adapt their interactional strategies to meet their children's communicative needs and achieve intersubjectivity than were the other mothers. Results support Lev S.…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of promoting relational thinking, using "elaborative interrogation" techniques, to facilitate the content acquisition of 36 elementary school students with mild disabilities. Results indicated that students coached in relational thinking who generated their own explanations outperformed students who were…

This study compared the performance of 12 children (ages 4 to 10) with developmental delay, each trained in 2 tasks, one through interactive modeling (with or without verbal reinforcement) and the other through passive modeling. Results showed that passive modeling produced better rated performance than interactive modeling and that verbal…

This study investigated the effectiveness of strategy instruction designed to foster the active participation of 11 high school students with disabilities in Individualized Education Program conferences. Results indicated that strategy-instructed students identified more goals and communicated more effectively during their conferences than did the…

This study examined the sociometric status of 79 children with current or suspected (mostly mild) disabilities in a full-inclusion elementary school, using a positive and negative peer nomination technique for the school's 592 students. Full inclusion did not eliminate negative social perceptions of students with disabilities. (Author/SW)