Numerous reasons exist for using a classroom-community model with severely/profoundly handicapped youth, including skill generalization, reinforcer sampling, awareness by nonhandicapped people, appropriate role models in the community, elevated teacher expectations, parent expectations, demonstrations of competence by students, and facilitating…

The paper is a product of the 3-year project, "Functional Mainstreaming for Success," designed to develop a model for instructional mainstreaming of handicapped children (3-6 years old) in community settings. The paper reviews the literature defining "mainstreaming," notes that mainstreaming is not the wholesale return of exceptional students from…

Planning and implementing successful community-based social integration experiences for infants and toddlers with multiple disabilities require consideration of such issues as the developmental needs unique to this age-group, family needs and concerns, health and safety considerations, and training needs of staff. (JDD)

The paper is a product of the 3-year project, "Functional Mainstreaming for Success," designed to develop a model for instructional mainstreaming of handicapped children (3-6 years old) in community settings. Evidence is presented of major competency deficiencies in both the pre-service and inservice training of regular teachers being asked to…

This paper compares segregated, integrated, and community-based environments for instructing students with severe, multiple handicaps. Advantages and disadvantages are reviewed, recommendations for selection of suitable instructional environments are offered, and essential criteria for the evaluation of instruction in the various environments are…

These two newsletter issues focus on training strategies for developing more inclusive programs for children with disabilities and for developing collaborative programs. An interview with Dr. Barbara Wolfe addresses successful inservice teacher training strategies. Additional information in the first issue includes guidelines for empowering…

The document consists of proceedings from the 1987 Leadership Conference on the topic of least restrictive environment (LRE) for severely disabled students. Contents include the following presentations: "The OSEP (Office of Special Education Programs) Plan for LRE" (G. Thomas Bellamy); "Bringing about Integrated Community-Based…

These proceedings of a national Australian conference deal with many aspects of educating gifted and talented students and contain an opening address by I. Mathieson concerning the philosophy of the Queensland (Australia) State Education Department and a statement by James Gallagher, President of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children.…

This document describes: (1) the programs and environments that may be considered as general education environments for children with disabilities under the age of six, in addressing the least restrictive provisions of legislation; (2) the procedures to be followed in the process of developing individualized education program (IEP) goals and…

These two newsletters focus on two issues concerning full inclusion for young children with disabilities: the debate over developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) in inclusive preschool classrooms, and optimal classroom environments for inclusive early childhood settings. The first newsletter includes: a review of three articles addressing DAP;…

The proceedings include, after the keynote address by E.M. Childers and the conference agenda, the following papers: "An Additional Handicap: Visual Perceptual Learning Disabilities of Deaf Children" (Vivienne Ratner); "Minimum Competency Testing" (Carl Williams); "Transitional Planning for Hearing Impaired Students in the Mainstream" (Helen…

This collection of papers examines instructional environments for students with severe disabilities. It points out that two principles should guide the selection of all instructional environments for all types of learners at all stages of instruction: the environment should be the least restrictive environment possible and it should be the most…

This paper presents a summary of early care and education policies for young children (ages 3-5) and then offers recommendations on how these efforts might be coordinated at the state and local levels. The policy summary is organized around the components of early care--child care, early childhood education, and early intervention for children at…