Going Home: General
and Special Education Teachers' Perspectives as Students with Moderate/Severe
Disabilities Return to Rural Neighborhood Schools
SUSAN HAMRE-NIETUPSKI
SUSAN DVORSKY
ANN MCKEE
JOHN NIETUPSKI
JENNETTE COOK
CHRISTINE COSTANZA
Abstract: The perspectives of general and special education teachers
were gathered as they were experiencing the initial year of the return of
students with moderate/severe disabilities to three rural neighborhood
schools. Interviews were conducted to gather teachers' perspectives at the
beginning, middle and end of the school year. Themes that persisted across
teachers and across time were identified and are illustrated through extensive
teacher quotes. The teachers' perspectives of what was occurring as they
attempted to include the students were compared/contrasted across the three
schools, as well as to critical elements of successful inclusion identified in
recent literature. Disparities between "what is" versus "what
should be" in including students with moderate/severe disabilities into
neighborhood schools were discussed.
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Adaptation in
Families with Adult Children with Mental Retardation: Impact of Family Strengths
and Appraisal
DANIEL C. LUSTIG
THERESA AKEY
Abstract: Lifelong caregiving for an adult with mental retardation can
be conceptualized as a family stressor and analyzed within the framework of
the Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment, and Adaptation. Parents of
116 adult children with mental retardation were measured on the dimensions of
family sense of coherence, social support, family adaptability, family
cohesion, and family adaptation. The purpose of this study was to investigate
the contribution of these key family variables to family adjustment in
families with an adult son or daughter with mental retardation. Results
indicated that family sense of coherence, social support, and family
adaptability made a significant contribution to family adaptation. Family
cohesion did not make a meaningful contribution to family adaptation.
Suggestions are made for increasing the family levels of these important
family resources.
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An Investigation
of Coping Skills of Parents of Children with Disabilities: Implications for
Service Providers
ROSEMARIE SCOTTI HUGHES
Abstract: Over 100,000 parents a year face the birth of a child with a
disability. The stresses resulting from that child's condition are numerous
and ongoing. Parents cope with that stress and crises in their families in
numerous ways. To learn of parental coping mechanisms, ethnographic research
of parents (N=34) of children with disabilities was conducted. Results
indicated that families who were active in church received ministry from the
church, which led to their ability to cope with stress and have a positive
outlook for their child. Service providers who use family-centered planning
can utilize and encourage the religious practices of the family as a resource.
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The Adaptive
Project of Parenting: South Asian Families with Children with Developmental
Delays
CHEMBA RAGHAVAN
THOMAS S. WEISNER
DEVINDRA PATEL
Abstract: This study investigated family adaptation patterns to children
with developmental delays, in a sample of South Asian families living in the
Los Angeles area, and a comparison sample of Euro-American families. The
Ecocultural Family Interview (EFI) explored similarities and differences. The
domains in which differences between South Asian families and Euro-American
families appear were family support (sorely missed in both quantity and
quality in the United States); spousal relations (improving after the birth of
the child); gender roles (clearly demarcated with women doing most
caretaking); cultural identity (the US "golden prison" and
"blended identity"); and spirituality (formal worship less important
than a general cultural continuity). South Asian families were similar in
their hope that the child's delay would somehow get better as time went on,
their active service use, common educational and medical issues, and
requirements to adapt work and child care. Systematically exploring what
"might have been" if the families had chosen to reside in their
native countries led to valuable comparative knowledge.
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Teacher Perceptions
of Self-Determination: Benefits, Characteristics, Strategies
MARTIN AGRAN
KIMBERLY SNOW
JAYNE SWANER
Abstract: Despite the current interest in promoting self-determination
and student-directed learning, the extent to which students are systematically
taught these skills remains uncertain. The purpose of this study was to survey
the perceptions of a sample of special educators on the benefits of
self-determination, the characteristics associated with it, and the strategies
used to achieve it. Results indicated strong support for self-determination
instruction, and the teachers reported that it provides numerous benefits.
Despite these findings, it was noted that relatively few educators include
self-determination skills in IEPs. The implications of these findings are
discussed.
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Sexual Knowledge,
Attitudes and Experiences of High School Students with and Without Disabilities
in Taiwan
JENGJYHI DUH
Abstract: The purpose of the study was to investigate the sexual
knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of high school students with and without
disabilities and make a cross-categorical comparison. Participants were chosen
on the basis of the cluster sampling procedure, consisting of 754
non-handicapped (NH), 423 mentally retarded (MR), 384 learning disabled (LD),
101 physically disabled (PD), and 296 hearing impaired (HI) adolescents.
Researcher-developed instruments were administered. While the NH students took
the inventories by group, the disabled participants were administered
individually. Results indicated that NH students surpassed their disabled
counterparts both in sexual knowledge and attitude inventories, whereas the HI
group appeared to be most active in sexual experiences. Unexpectedly, while
the NH group were most knowledgeable and demonstrated most positive attitude
toward sexuality issues, they did not have much sexual experience as expected.
Of the disabled groups, the LD outperformed the rest groups both in sexual
knowledge and attitude inventories. Interestingly, although HI students
reported to have most sexual experiences, they were not sexually informed. The
obtained results also indicated that the MR group not only had least
appropriate knowledge, most negative attitude and but least amount of contact
with peers of the opposite sex. Further discussion was presented based on the
above findings.
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Self-management
of Sharing in Three Pre-schoolers with Autism
DANA R. REINECKE
BOBBY NEWMAN
DEBORAH L. MEINBERG
Abstract: The effectiveness of self-management as a procedure to teach
sharing to preschoolers with autism was examined using a reversal design.
Three preschool boys with autism participated in this study. Each was familiar
with the token economy system. A token economy was incorporated into a play
situation in which each student was given the opportunity to take a token each
time he shared spontaneously or in response to the verbal prompt of a teacher.
All students systematically demonstrated a higher frequency of sharing during
self-management phases than during baseline conditions in which tokens were
provided non-contingently. This demonstrates that the mere presentation of
tokens by the experimenter was not sufficient to cause behavior change.
Rather, the opportunity to take tokens contingent upon correct responding
appears to have lead to an increase in sharing for all three students.
Accuracy of self-management was also examined. Accuracy of self-management was
not high, indicating that the contingent relationship between token and
response may not have been the crucial variable effecting behavior change.
Implications for future research are discussed.
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Using Simultaneous
Prompting to Teach a Chained Vocational Task to Young Adults with Severe Intellectual
Disabilities
KATHLEEN S. FETKO
JOHN W. SCHUSTER
DEBRA A. HARLEY
BELVA C. COLLINS
Abstract: We assessed the effectiveness of simultaneous prompting, an
instructional procedure which involves presenting the task direction and
immediately providing the controlling prompt, when teaching 4 young adults
with severe intellectual disabilities to open a locker secured with a keyed
lock. Daily probe sessions assessed the acquisition of the target behavior. A
multiple probe design across subjects evaluated the effectiveness of the
simultaneous prompting procedure. Results indicated the effectiveness of the
procedure in teaching the targeted behavior. In addition, the behavior
generalized to other materials and over time.
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Effects of Transdisciplinary
Teaming for Students with Motor Disabilities
NELLA B. ANDERSON
JACQUELINE HAWKINS
RICHARD HAMILTON
JILL D. HAMPTON
Abstract: A comprehensive educational system requires formal
collaboration between team members to determine educational goals,
intervention techniques, and monitoring of student performance. This study was
developed to address whether activities associated with transdisciplinary
teaming could increase targeted motor responses of elementary age students
with disabilities during the general education classroom routine. Three
students with disabilities, 11 adult participants, and a variety of peers
without disabilities participated in the study. A multiple-baseline design
across target students was used to assess the effects of incorporating
transdisciplinary collaboration teaming activities and integrated therapy on
the target motor responses. All of the students who participated in the study
immediately increased and maintained their target motor responses when
transdisciplinary teaming and integrated therapy began.
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Teaching Table
Cleaning Skills to Secondary Students with Moderate/Severe Disabilities: Facilitating
Observational Learning During Instructional Downtime
RONALD L.SMITH
BELVA C. COLLINS
JOHN W. SCHUSTER
HAROLD KLEINERT
Abstract: This investigation taught table cleaning skills to 4 secondary
students with moderate/severe disabilities using a system of least prompts (SLP)
procedure and multiple exemplars. The students also had the opportunity to
acquire nontargeted information through observational learning during typical
instructional downtime, in which the instructor intermittently praised them
for watching and listening as he prepared and put away the necessary
materials. A multiple probe design across students evaluated the effectiveness
of the procedure, and pre- and post-intervention probe sessions evaluated the
acquisition of nontargeted information and generalization. The results
indicate that the SLP instructional strategy with multiple exemplars was
effective in teaching table cleaning skills to the participants that
generalized to three other settings. In addition, students increased the
ability to perform tasks acquired observationally.
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Ratings of High
Quality Interactions by Professionals: Similarities Despite Differences in
Theoretical Orientation
WILLY-TORE MORCH
JEANNIE GOLDEN
DAG ERIK EILERTSEN
SCOTT C. CROSS
Abstract: Two groups of mental retardation professionals, one with a
behavioral theoretical background and one with an eclectic theoretical
background, were asked to evaluate the quality of videotaped interactions
between direct care staff and individuals with mental retardation. A
five-point Likert scale combined with the Training Proficiency Scale (Watson,
1972) were used to assess 10 videotaped mealtime interactions. To examine the
criteria used for overall judgment of quality, scores for the single items
were correlated with the overall quality scores of each video. Results
indicated that the two groups were similar in their overall ratings.
Implications of these findings, in terms of myths about professionals from
differing orientations, are discussed.
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