Students with a newly acquired disability may struggle with adjusting to their life postdisability; therefore, they represent a unique facet of students within schools that require specialized services and support by school counselors. Creativity, used by school counselors within therapy sessions, may help promote personal growth and the…

The article introduces five case study reports that illustrate augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions with adults who have severe acquired communication disorders. Issues common to AAC management of adults are considered as are issues specific to the conditions of amytrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, brain…

This paper questions the acceptance of injuries obtained while participating in sport and in particular, the relationship between participation in boxing and brain injury/damage identified in boxers. A review of the literature indicates research findings support the tenet that brain damage found in boxers is cumulative and is directly related to…

A counselor blind from birth describes personal difficulties in fully understanding the experience of clients who are adventitiously blind. Congenitally blind counselors are urged to recognize that adaptive methods cannot compensate for the panoramic view of the environment provided by vision and that recently blinded individuals need to deal with…

A congenitally disabled psychotherapist recounts her own experiences in learning to accept her body and notes the differences in self-esteem needs of congenitally versus adventitiously impaired persons. Helpful parental attitudes and actions are discussed. (CL)

The Braille Institute's Community Outreach Program provides adventitiously blinded older adults with opportunities to volunteer in local community agencies, schools, and hospitals upon completion of the institute's special education program. Students use new independence skills in a functional social environment, thereby increasing their…

This article describes the development and implementation of an innovative program of information centers in Israel that is designed to identify newly blind persons and to give them first-hand information about available services, as well as to stimulate an awareness of rehabilitation services among medical personnel. (Author/DB)

Usher syndrome, Type I, requires multiple adaptations throughout the life cycle because each stage of life has tasks and losses associated with deafness and progressive retinitis pigmentosa. This article examines the issues raised at each stage, using clinical vignettes from persons who have this condition and their families. (Author/DB)

Based upon 15 interviews, the paper discusses specific educational and social problems as perceived by nine brain injured learners (14-24 years old), their teachers, families, and peers. Interview excerpts illustrate executive functions of self-awareness, self-evaluation, and self-monitoring; the effects on families; and student difficulties in…

The Community Cadre Network in Virginia is a local support network for helping individuals with spinal cord injuries make the transition from an institutional setting to home and community life. Cadre members are people who have been through the experience of traumatic injury, rehabilitation, and return home. (SEW)

This article discusses the incorporation of architectural principles into redesigning a classroom at York University (Ontario) for a mix of university students and professors/lecturers who are culturally deaf, oral deaf, hard of hearing, late deafened, and hearing. Special design features include lighting and color, noise control, furniture, and…

This paper describes a computer-assisted communication system successfully used in three cases of "locked in syndrome" (in which the only reliable motor functions are eye movements). The paper concludes that patients who survive locked in syndrome for several weeks should be given the chance to communicate via a suitable system. (DB)

A case study is used to demonstrate the effects of mild traumatic brain injury on educational efforts. Discussion covers factors complicating school reintegration, ways to facilitate school reintegration, identification of cognitive and behavioral consequences, minimization of educators' discomfort, reintegration program design, and family…

This paper provides information for helping children with closed-head injuries (CHI) successfully return to school. It explains how to identify deficits in CHI students, initiate the return to school, involve the speech-language pathologist, and establish effective networks between the rehabilitation setting and the educational setting. Helpful…

This article describes the methods used to teach mobility skills to a young man severely disabled (blind and bilaterally hand amputated) by an explosion. Stressed are the assistive devices developed and the therapist's and student's feelings during the training course. (DB)