Education
and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities
VOLUME
39 NUMBER 2 June 2004
Parent and Sibling Perspectives on the
Transition to Adulthood
Role
of Spirituality and Religion in Family Quality of Life
for Families of Children with Disabilities
Attitudes
of Japanese Adults toward Persons with Intellectual Disability:
Relationship between Attitudes and Demographic Variables
Impact
of Grade and Disability on the Instructional Context of Inclusive
Classrooms
Mastery
Behaviors During Social and Object Play in Toddlers with
Physical Impairments
Simultaneous
Prompting: A Review of the Literature
State
of Curriculum for Secondary Students with Mild Mental Retardation
Social
Cognitive Processing in Elementary School Children with Asperger
Syndrome
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Abstracts
Parent and Sibling
Perspectives on the Transition to Adulthood
Cynthia R. Chambers, Carolyn Hughes, and Erik W. Carter
Abstract:
The purpose of this investigation was to extend research on parent and sibling
perspectives concerning the transition of family members with significant cognitive
disabilities to adult life. Eight parents and eight siblings of high school students
with significant cognitive disabilities completed questionnaires addressing transition
outcomes. Results indicate that parents and siblings believe that they lacked
knowledge with respect to post-school options, and parents report assuming more
active roles in the transition process than did siblings. Although future employment
and independent living were important to respondents, both parents and siblings
anticipated that after high school, their family member with a disability would
work in a segregated employment setting and would live in the parent’s
home. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
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Role of Spirituality
and Religion in Family Quality of Life for Families of Children
with Disabilities
Denise J. Poston and Ann P. Turnbull
Abstract:Results from a qualitative inquiry investigating conceptualization of family
quality of life are provided. Focus groups and individual interviews were comprised
of 187 individuals that included family members (e.g., parents, siblings) of
children with a disability, eight individuals with a disability, family members
of children without a disability, service providers, and administrators. Data
were collected in urban and rural settings to elicit participants’ understanding
of domains of family quality of life. Themes of spirituality and religion in
the context of family quality of life for families of children with disabilities
are explored in this article. Families described the importance of spirituality
in their lives and their participation in religious communities. Discussion and
implications include strategies to enhance family spiritual well being, to provide
spiritually sensitive supports, and to promote inclusive religious communities
for children with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD) and
their families.
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Attitudes of Japanese
Adults toward Persons with Intellectual Disability: Relationship
between Attitudes and Demographic Variables
Toshiaki Tachibana and Kanji Watanabe
Abstract:Parents of pupils who were attending elementary schools in a typical medium-size
city of Japan were surveyed. Respondents who had a close friend who has a person
with intellectual disability (ID) as a family member or who had experience of
voluntary work or job-related contact showed clear favorable attitudes. However,
they differed greatly from respondents who have a person with ID in the family
in their ideas of independent life of people with ID. Respondents who have a
relative with ID did not show as favorable attitudes as expected, and showed
only a small degree of concern for ID problems. Question-items were examined
individually to determine external validity for an attitude test, using the criterion
of the family variable results.
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Impact of Grade
and Disability on the Instructional Context of Inclusive Classrooms
Stacy K. Dymond and Douglas L. Russell
Abstract: This study investigated
general education classrooms in one elementary school to determine
impact of grade and disability on interactions among students,
teachers, and the environment (i.e., instructional context).
Twelve students were randomly selected from four strata (mild
disabilities/grades 1–2; mild disabilities grades 3–5;
severe disabilities/grades 1–2; severe disabilities/grades
3–5) and observed during academic general education classes.
An interval recording procedure was used to collect data on
seven variables. Data suggest that differences in the instructional
context were present for grade and/or disability level in the
areas of curriculum, instructional format, and partner. No
differences were found for type of activity, location, or student
response. Preliminary findings include: 1) students with severe
disabilities, particularly in grades 3–5, spent less
time in general education classrooms than students with mild
disabilities and were more likely to receive special education
support from a paraprofessional than a special education teacher;
2) curriculum adaptations were almost non-existent for students
with mild disabilities yet they were used regularly with students
with severe disabilities; and 3) number of students with severe
disabilities receiving individual instruction varied by grade
level, raising questions about how decisions regarding instructional
format were made. Implications for evaluating and improving
inclusive schools are discussed.
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Mastery Behaviors
During Social and Object Play in Toddlers with Physical Impairments
Mandy L. Smidt and Cynthia J. Cress
Abstract: The
present study assessed mastery behaviors in toddlers with physical
impairment during object and social play interaction with their
parents. Poor mastery motivation in object play of children
with physical impairments has been attributed to difficulty
in independently structuring tasks, limited experience in play
effectiveness, and frequent failure with tasks. Samples of
free object and social play between 25 parents and toddlers
with physical impairments were analyzed to compare mastery
behaviors during social and object play, and the relationship
of these mastery behaviors to other developmental skills. Children
attended to task more and were more persistent during object
play than during social play. Social interchange, referencing,
and displays of affect were more frequent during social play.
Both cognitive and receptive language scores were positively
correlated with exploration and persistence. However, children’s
motor skills were positively correlated with exploration and
persistence, which suggests that persistence measures alone
are insufficient as metrics of mastery motivation in children
with physical impairments without considering other social
and contextual metrics.
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Simultaneous Prompting:
A Review of the Literature
Timothy E. Morse and John W. Schuster
Abstract: Published literature pertaining to the simultaneous prompting teaching procedure
is reviewed. Purposes of this review are to (a) present an initial analysis of
effectiveness of this emerging response prompting procedure, (b) discuss work
that has been conducted to date, and (c) provide directions for future research.
Data from all published investigations (18 articles) in which effectiveness of
this procedure was reported are included in this review. Demographic, procedural,
and outcome variables are summarized and examined. Simultaneous prompting was
reported to be an effective teaching procedure in each investigation. Individuals
with and without disabilities have been taught discrete and chained tasks with
the procedure. Participants in investigations have included preschool, elementary,
middle school, and high school students, as well as adults. High rates of procedural
and dependent variable reliability data were reported across investigations.
Additionally, positive measures of maintenance and generalization were reported
in most investigations.
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State
of Curriculum for Secondary Students with Mild Mental Retardation
Debra Hart, Joan Mele-McCarthy, Robert H. Pasternack, Karen Zimbrich, and David R. Parker
Abstract:
Since passage of Public Law 94-142 in 1975, the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act, much debate has occurred regarding how to address curriculum in
terms of meeting needs of students within various special education categories.
Recently, more discussion has emerged regarding transition and curriculum geared
towards assisting with this process, particularly as researchers discover dismal
outcomes for special education students post high school. However, discussions
and even passing further laws, such as IDEA of 1990 and its amendments in 1997,
do not guarantee that these ideas and practices are implemented in the curriculum.
This paper reviews research on curriculum for students with mild mental retardation,
or impairment. Implications including exploration of functional curriculum in
secondary settings and abandoning remedial curriculum are discussed.
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Social
Cognitive Processing in Elementary School Children with Asperger
Syndrome
Douglas E. Carothers and Ronald L. Taylor
Abstract:
Twenty students with Asperger syndrome were
compared to 20 typically developing peers to determine their
relative effectiveness in interpreting social intentions of others
and to examine whether with a given interpretation of social
intention there were differences in the social interaction strategies
chosen by these two groups of students. An independent samples
t-test indicates that the typically developing group performed
significantly better on encoding conflicts and benign intention
cues. Mixed ANOVAs reveal significant differences between groups
for rating of a peer as “not mean” based on cue type,
and that the group with Asperger syndrome was more likely to
cite use of aggressive strategies. Recommendations focus on methods
of teaching social perception and strategy generation for students
with Asperger syndrome.
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