One challenge teachers of students with orthopedic and multiple disabilities face is providing sufficient time and opportunity to communicate. This challenge is universal across countries, schools, and settings: teachers want students to communicate because communication lies at the core of what makes us human. Yet students with orthopedic and…

This article reviews normal visual development and the role of visual gaze behaviors in attention and social interaction, discusses how the information applies to many multiply handicapped visually impaired children, and describes ways of incorporating this information into assessment and programing. (DB)

The importance of communication skills for students with the most significant disabilities is highlighted. Specific attention is paid to the need to recognize and understand unconventional means of communication. Ideas for augmenting the student's communicative efforts are provided, and the critical importance of team collaboration is emphasized.…

This manual presents an assessment instrument designed to help teachers, educational specialists, speech-language therapists, psychologists, and other service providers evaluate the communication skills of children, adolescents, and young adults who have multiple disabilities, including severe or profound mental retardation and deafblindness. It…

Designed for teaching the related services staff, residential care providers, and families of individuals with severe hearing and vision impairments, this booklet explains the issues related to developing a communication system using textures. The texture symbols described are intended for use by individuals with dual sensory and multiple…

The purpose of this manual, the culmination of a graduate project begun at the University of Kansas, is to assist individuals with severe, multiple disabilities and their service providers in learning to utilize nonsymbolic behaviors in an expanded, facilitative manner that leads to more consistent and predictable communication functioning. The…

This 37-minute videotape recording demonstrates selected interventions to assist infants and toddlers with multiple disabilities, including vision and hearing loss, in developing early communication and other skills. Emphasizing the critical importance of early intervention, the video is designed to help service providers and families create…

This combined audiovisual and textual package presents results of a symposium which attempted to identify critical issues and best practices in developing communication skills of children and youth with severe disabilities and to recommend future directions. The package is intended for group use and includes a guide, a videotape, and texts of the…

The training guide begins with a rationale for the use of special education paraprofessionals working with deaf-blind and multihandicapped children in Oklahoma schools. It presents a schedule for training paraprofessional staff in 10 sessions. Resource materials are then presented as background information for the training sessions. This…

This handbook provides basic information on the needs of young children (ages 3-8) whose multiple disabilities include visual impairments. Chapters address: (1) common disabilities associated with visual impairment, the primary educational needs of these children, and the complexity involved in teaching them; (2) the need for clearly defined…

This book is intended as a comprehensive source of information on the diagnosis and treatment of Asperger syndrome. Chapter 1 discusses major classification of characteristics and chapter 2 describes prevalence, comorbidity, and causal factors of Asperger syndrome. Chapter 3 examines clinical diagnosis and misdiagnosis and the influence of…