The DEC Recommended Practices provide guidance to families and professionals about the most effective ways to improve learning outcomes and promote development of young children, birth through age 5, who have, or are at-risk for, developmental delays or disabilities. "Instruction: Effective Strategies to Support Engagement, Learning, and…

Three basic learning principles are advanced regarding planning early intervention for preschoolers with disabilities. Principles focus on structured motor development, concrete instructional materials, and structured self-help activities. (CL)

The author outlines nine principles relevant to planning instruction for students who experience difficulties in academic and social skills. (SBH)

Curriculum methods and materials need to address the values, individual traits, and learning styles of the handicapped child with racial or ethnic differences. (SBH)

This guide is intended to help educators develop and meet Individual Education Program (IEP) social competence goals for elementary and middle school students. These goals and objectives center on the areas of cooperation, organization, responsibility, and empathy. For each area, the guide provides: (1) examples of strategies and methods for…

This report describes a project which analyzed science and social studies textbooks to determine how well they accommodate the learning needs of mainstreamed hard-to-teach students. A textbook analysis tool was developed, and eight teacher-reviewers examined the instructional design of teachers' and students' editions of 12 leading elementary and…

The use of the laserdisc in the classroom is described. Major advantages of the laserdisc are durability and large information storage capacity. Connecting the laserdisc with a microcomputer allows quick access to and interaction with the information it contains. Five uses of the system are further discussed: archival, demonstration, illustration…

A study compared the effect of two different lecture pause procedures (pauses used for reflection and notetaking; pauses used for discussion) on the recall and note completeness of 27 college students with learning disabilities. Results show independent reflection meant fewer ideas partially recorded in notes, but otherwise no significant…

A competency-based instructional program was developed to improve the training and performance of paraprofessionals working in education programs for special needs students. The content is designed to meet the training needs of entry-level instructional paraprofessionals serving in public school programs. The content is presented in five modules,…

A home-based, computer-monitored contingency intervention program was developed to provide a source of cognitive and motivational stimulation to infants with handicaps. Equipment includes a computer, contingency interface, software, adaptive toys, switches, and a mounting panel. Learning was exhibited by 19 of 20 infants, and parental response was…

This final report of the Group Errorless Teaching Strategies Research Project is organized by the project objectives and covers planned and actual activities and outcomes. Objective 1 involved a review of the literature related to teaching students with mild and moderate mental handicaps in group settings and resulted in three articles which…

This guidebook is based on research and development associated with the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) teacher education project "Special Needs in the Classroom." The aim of the project was to design and disseminate a Resource Pack of teacher education materials to help schools and teachers…

This set of training materials is part of a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) project to help schools and teachers throughout the world respond to pupils with special needs. Four modules comprise the materials, which are designed to be appropriate as part of preservice training, an inservice workshop, or a…

Outreach projects are funded to disseminate effective early childhood service models for use with handicapped children. To accomplish this mission, this paper describes how to offer effective training programs to parents, community leaders, volunteers, allied professionals and paraprofessionals, and staffs of agencies that wish to replicate the…

This bulletin is the third in a series of annual publications issued by the Cooperative Research Program of the Office of Education. Its purpose is to provide practitioners, researchers, and others interested in education with information concerning research projects that are being supported under the Cooperative Research Program. A brief…