Background: Public stigma, or negative community-held beliefs, about children with disabilities (CWDs) often leads to negative outcomes for CWD and their families. This study considers the effectiveness of four community-level interventions to reduce public stigma in two Lusaka, Zambia communities. Methods: This feasibility study describes four…

University social work programs can play a critical role in helping communities to expand local capacity in efforts to end homelessness. The Supplemental Security Income/Social Security Disability Insurance (SSI/SSDI) Outreach, Access and Recovery (SOAR) program is an evidence-based model that social work programs are advancing through…

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of parents of children with mild language delays who were referred to an Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) birth-to-3 or preschool program, were determined not eligible for services, and were referred on to a community-based program for short-term speech-language therapy.…

Academics from diverse disciplines are recognizing not only the procedural ethical issues involved in research, but also the complexity of everyday "micro" ethical issues that arise. While ethical guidelines are being developed for research in aboriginal populations and low-and-middle-income countries, multi-partnered research…

Pivotal Response Training (PRT) is a naturalistic, behavioral intervention with a strong evidence-base that is designed to increase generalization and maintenance of responding in children with ASD. Although special education teachers report using PRT, little research to date has examined PRT use in the context of community school programs. There…

This article will focus on students with disabilities in foster care to help school psychologists identify effective school-based interventions for these students. We will report our findings from three independent studies and then apply the findings to suggest targeted interventions for these students that are intended to improve educational and…

Nearly four decades have passed since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensured access to public education for students with disabilities in the United States. During the years following its introduction, there was a growing recognition that helping students, especially students with disabilities, in their transitions from…

Health promotion interventions for adults who are visually impaired have received little attention. This article reports what is currently known about the health, overweight and obesity, and levels of physical activity reported by these adults. Conclusions about the need for health promotion activities based on this information are provided, and…

The article describes the principles that guide program development, the use of therapeutic and educational activities, and the components of transitional program models for disabled individuals re-entering the community following discharge from rehabilitation facilities. The role of the occupatonal therapist in successful reintegration is…

The author predicts major innovations in the future of the handicapped person in his community. Future trends are reported for the following eight areas: research and prevention efforts on decreasing the incidence of the more severe handicapping conditions, impact of the ideology of normalization, parents of the retarded, self advocacy for…

This paper examines the magnitude of the problem of disability facing developing countries; the traditional response to this challenge and its ineffectiveness; the emergence of community-based rehabilitation (CBR); its underlying assumptions and effectiveness in terms of staff training, interagency partnerships, and parental and community…

The study evaluated two early intervention programs for rural preschool handicapped and developmentally delayed children to determine the degree of integration into the community and program-community interaction. Analysis of 6 months of observation in the two programs resulted in the following conclusions: (1) administration of early intervention…

The handbook focuses on the methods and techniques used in the Child Advocacy Project (Philadelphia), a community development project for child advocacy in five areas--education, youth activities, health and welfare, legal rights, and handicapped and mentally retarded children. Brief sections cover the following areas (sample topics are in…

This paper reviews the status of children with disabilities throughout the world. It summarizes United Nations information on the prevalence of disability and on prevention efforts. Progress is noted in the areas of immunization, increased early intervention services, community-based rehabilitation, and increased recognition of governmental…

This article on the use of community resources by families of young children with special needs discusses the rationale for the use of community resources in federal legislation, strategies for building resources, barriers to the use of community resources, and recommendations for increasing the use of community resources. (CR)