The article reviews ways in which software can be modified for students with mild learning difficulties and criteria for evaluating software in terms of its appropriateness to school curriculum, software format, and its effectiveness in ameliorating learning difficulties of individual children. (CL)

Special education students can be stimulated to write through a variety of activities, including representation, publicity and display tasks, activities featuring photographs, use of music and poetry, and projects in which students finish stories and describe novel materials. (CL)

The authors question whether mandatory special education in Ontario is likely to result in increased litigation against school boards. Two areas of educational litigation, negligence claims and appeal hearings, are examined taking into consideration cases from Canada and the United States. (Author)

The author decries the retreat of the Nova Scota government from a "zero reject" status to potential exclusion of handicapped children and questions its constitutionality. After examining the American experience in special education litigation, he concludes that Nova Scotians should be positive but realistic about using the Charter of Rights to…

The article reviews Canada's Guide for Physicians in Determining Fitness to Drive a Vehicle and then considers sections of provincial motor vehicle acts that regulate the issuance of licenses to the handicapped. (CL)

The Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD), a cognitive assessment model designed to measure cognitive processes during problem solving, emphasizes determination of specific types of thinking abilities used in mastering cognitive tasks rather than just on the solution. The LPAD is seen as an important advance in evaluating individual…

Undergraduate special education course participants (N=133) were asked to read four vignettes describing children with emotional-behavior problems, and respond to an attitude instrument. The acting-out children were viewed as significantly more likeable, teachable, and manageable, with higher academic expectations. The withdrawn children were…

The Paraprofessional Outreach Program, designed to provide needed support for parents of developmentally delayed children living at home features parents serving as paraprofessionals in a behavioral approach. Evidence indicates that the program has had a positive impact upon both parents and their children. (Author/CL)

The constant task condition in which only trials on the target task were presented during each session led to faster response acquisition by two of four autistic children (9-10 years old) than the varied task methods in which trials for three nontarget tasks were interspersed with trials for the target task. (CL)

The paper discusses the use of active stimulation devices which use various types of electronic switches to provide positive reinforcement for desired movement in severely handicapped students. Data show the effects of using an electronic switch to increase independent head control in a spastic quadriplegic severely handicapped girl. The problems…

Verbal training and verbal training plus gestures resulted in acquisition of noun-verb labeling responses in three severely retarded Ss (5-23 years old). The procedures did not differentially influence percentage of correct verbal labeling responses. The finding that gestural responses were shown across all conditions was discussed in terms of…

The "Try Procedures," a diagnostic teaching strategy used with precision teaching, provides a way to determine which teaching methods produce the greatest gains for individual students. Five steps feature initial assessment, dividing items to be taught, teaching by two or more methods, probing, and looking at the data. Comparison of two sight word…

Four physicaly handicapped children with mental ages between three and three-and-a-half years progressed through a sound training program teaching word generation with and without an auditory model. Treatment procedures progressed from production of single phonemes to multisound levels. Results suggested that some prereading nonvocal physically…

Evaluation of summer Get Together programs (structured educational and recreational programs committed to integrating disabled children) serving 36 children (5-12 years old) revealed parentally reported improvements in communication skills and social skills. Some severely disabled children increased tolerance to the noise and activity of large…

Ratings of needed skills were compared for groups of parents and teachers of elementary and secondary moderately disabled pupils and employers involved and not involved in work experience programs. Parent, teacher, and employer perceptions of specific skills which should be the school's responsibility were generally consistent. (CL)