In this article the author provides legal explanations to the following concerns: (1) Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs); (2) Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs); (3) Manifestation Determinations under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA);…

The author reviews three topics featured in his first Behavior Modification column: pupil management, social validation, and nondiscriminatory testing. Two new topics are also discussed: data and decisions, and program evaluation. (Author)

This paper offers modifications to the position of Horner and others (EC 232 976), including tying the level of approval required for an intervention to the seriousness of the behavior problem. The paper proposes that the debate over the use of "aversives" is finished, and attention should now be turned to how best to use positive…

In response to Horner and others (EC 232 976), this paper notes earlier recommendation of procedural safeguards to protect client rights and encouragement of positive procedures to increase adaptive skills but questions whether a positive but slow intervention is more ethically valid than more quickly effective "aversive" interventions…

This response to a paper by Guess and Carr (EC 602 212) on stereotypy and self-injurious behavior in the disabled focuses on (1) potentially misleading statements that may discourage practitioners from operant approaches to stereotypy and self-injury, and (2) strengths and weaknesses of the model compared to existing operant models. (DB)

These tips for the vocational teacher with mainstreamed students focus on three areas: the student, the classroom, and teacher strategies. The tips that focus on the student have an interpersonal focus. Recommendations are concerned with student strengths and weaknesses of which the teacher should be aware through observations, gathering and using…

In this article, the author recognizes and responds to the three major themes of the four articles focusing on the use of school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) with students having the most serious problem behavior: needed research, including students with severe disabilities at all support levels through adaptations, and avoiding further…

Piagetian based curricular attempts in special education may have to begin with a system for representing the individual's current level of behavioral organization and designing environmental interactions that expand the constructions of the individual into reorganized, more complex forms. (Author)

Drawing upon the works of Paulo Freire and Lev S. Vygotsky, this paper argues that the institution of special education inculcates helplessness rather than autonomy, discusses the cognitive behavior modifications that enable self-control and self-mediation of learning, and proposes the educational ideal of student empowerment and autonomy. (JDD)

The knowledgeable professional who works with special children recognizes that the parents of special children have an important effect in the children's development. The paper states that in China, parent involvement in special children's education has been limited by the parents' need to work and their lack of counseling experience with special…

This paper responds to commentaries on an original article which proposed decreasing the training of applied behavior analysts as if they were going to be researchers, because most are not. The paper supports high quality research but opposes inculcating proresearcher, antipractitioner values in graduate education and recommends trying harder to…

As people see a powerful technology and philosophical value system originally developed to promote the self-determination and inclusion of individuals students with severe disabilities applied to and having impact on the broader school population, they wonder what the outcomes will be. In this article, the authors reflect on two issues: (1) the…

Litigation and the issues surrounding the use of behavioral procedures to handicapped persons are reviewed. Attention is directed to the use of aversive techniques, e.g., corporal punishment, electric shock, timeout, and restraint. (SEW)

Creative dramatics has potential as a therapeutic recreational tool with special populations. Informal dramatic activities such as characterizations with hats, fantasizing, and improvised television commercials can be learned by students and applied in hospitals and nursing homes. (JN)

This introduction discusses how creative programmatic activities can be designed to address the needs of preservice and inservice educators. It describes a practicum that provided preservice students in early childhood special education opportunities to apply consultation skills to teachers working with children with disabilities and an inservice…