Vision assessment in multiply impaired children (ages 3-19, n=50) was studied by evaluating questionnaires completed by the psychological services responsible for determining their educational requirements. Relatively few conducted assessments of visual functioning but chose instead to determine level of visual impairment from medical,…

Normal children (average age 11, n=25) and multiply disabled children (aged 9-15, n=8) were integrated in physical education classes, emphasizing work with disabled-normal dyads. Girls were more willing than boys to accept disabled children into their groups, but during individual activities, boys were less reticent about making physical contact.…

Three case studies of students (aged 8-13) with emotional and behavior problems are presented to illustrate issues in teacher-parent communication difficulties. Teachers' visits to the students' homes were used as part of a family systems approach in successfully devising a method to reinforce behavior change. (JDD)

The article describes how a British residential school for hearing-impaired children tackled difficult behavior and became more conscious of its ethos by employing a problem-centered methodology. Problems such as intra-school communication and students' inappropriate social behavior were the focus of a teacher workshop and resultant task groups.…

Four 2nd-grade students completed addition problems on a computer, using video games as reinforcers. Two variable ratio schedules of reinforcement failed to increase student accuracy or the rate of correct responses. In a no-games reinforcement condition, students had more opportunities to respond and had a greater number of correct answers.…

An observational system is described that collects precise data on the performance of teachers involved in task analytic instruction with severely handicapped students. Discussed are the observation process, provision of feedback to the teacher, teacher self-monitoring of instruction, and field test data for the observation system. (JDD)

A noncomputerized system was developed for collection, storage, and analysis of student performance data in an early childhood special education program. Formative evaluation data for 12 students during one school quarter indicated that the staff made 719 data-based decisions, resulting in reteaching, moving ahead, or branching within cumulative…

Using "Multimate On-File" on an IBM-PC microcomputer, a system was developed to help local and district school personnel match identified special education classroom needs with volunteer resources. The user-friendly "index card" software searches, sorts, and retrieves records and has features that can be customized to suit individual school needs.…

Twelve learning-handicapped elementary students were exposed to synthetic speech. Subsequently, the children identified a higher percentage of stimulus words presented by a speech synthesizer than did children in a limited exposure group. Both groups correctly identified more words presented by a tape recording than presented by the speech…

Two concepts were taught to mentally retarded and nonretarded third graders (n=88). Both groups learned faster when computer displays continuously converted the concepts either into concept examples or concept nonexamples, compared to procedures where examples were not converted. Mentally retarded students benefited more from the conversion…

The study describes a computer-assisted instruction program that implemented a constant time delay procedure to teach the spelling of 15 state names to a sixth grader with a history of spelling disabilities. Maintenance and generalization of training effects also occurred. (Author/DB)

The study assessed the efficiency of and teacher satisfaction with collection of student performance data by computers. The 20 special education teachers spent less time in measurement and evaluation and were more satisfied when data were collected by computers. However, students spent more time in measurement with computer data collection.…

The article describes the three-year Education Development Center/Technical Education Research Center Middle School Technology Integration Project which is investigating how technology is integrated into language arts and mathematics curricula, and its impact on mainstreamed mildly handicapped students. The evolution of computer use at four…

A multimethod (both quantitative and qualitative) investigation of the integration of computer-assisted instruction into the curriculum for mildly handicapped high school students is being conducted. Preliminary findings support efforts in four areas: needs assessment procedures, software selection, inservice training and technical assistance, and…

The article describes a three-year research project to develop an applications model to successfully integrate technology in the instruction of mild and moderately handicapped elementary grade students. The model focuses on decisions of in-school agents in such areas as identification of content, instructional methods, organization of instruction,…