This discussion reviews the literature regarding consultation as a form of indirect service delivery in early intervention for children with disabilities, identifies barriers to effective consultation practice, and concludes that consultation can allow children with disabilities to receive intervention services in integrated settings if…

Ten steps are usually necessary for successful mainstreaming of handicapped children: (1) Assess the handicapped child's readiness for mainstreaming; (2) Assess the parents' readiness level; (3) Meet with the school or agency's chief administrator; (4) Arrange visits to potential mainstreaming sites; (5) Confer with teachers at the chosen site;…

The article discusses conceptual principles which underpin development of consultation-based programing for students with mild disabilities, proposes informal standards for ecological evaluation of specific formats, and identifies factors (such as administrative support and participatory planning and decision making) that maximize the potential…

Schools in the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) area have established a Resource Teacher Service (RTS) to provide necessary educational program supports for physically disabled students, their teachers, and their schools when community school placements are indicated. The principles of intervention emphasized in the RTS include pragmatic forms of…

An analysis of variables effecting the success of mainstreaming programs in 27 school districts in Vermont--five of which were unsuccessful in that consulting teacher services were not maintained for more than two years, and 22 of which were successful in that consulting teacher services were maintained for more than two years--was undertaken.…

This paper outlines the tasks required in developing special education consultation programs to serve special needs students in the least restrictive environment: determination of program goals, selection of models and approaches, identification of specific consulting strategies and tasks, allocation of resources, preparation of affected…

The article presents a teacher training model based on the Agricultural Extension Service Agent Model to meet the educational needs of handicapped students in rural areas. The model involves training regular classroom teachers to become in-house specialists on maintaining the mildly handicapped student in the regular classroom. (DB)

This practicum developed a program to improve the mainstreaming of secondary level students with learning disabilities through provision of: (1) inservice training workshops on the topic of collaborative consultation for regular and exceptional (special) educators, and (2) study skills seminars for the students. In addition to the inservice…

The monograph describes the co-teaching program in the L'Anse Creuse (Michigan) public schools, implemented at Middle School South, in which regular and special education teachers are paired to provide academic support to mildly impaired middle-school special education students within the regular education classroom. The program currently includes…

Prereferral intervention is designed to reduce referrals for special education placement, by modifying teacher instruction or management of difficult-to-teach (DTT) pupils prior to formal referral. A 3-year project is described in which Mainstream Assistance Teams offer consultation services to teachers in elementary and middle schools. The…

This paper describes components of the Teacher Support System, an approach to providing behavioral counseling support to teachers with students having severe problem behaviors. Personnel and procedural components are described, along with descriptive and outcome information from case studies of students who have received support from the system.…

The paper describes application of an interactive model to providing services for young children with special needs being mainstreamed in community day care programs. In this model, the resource consultant coordinates service delivery in interactions with: (1) the child and family; (2) early childhood educators; and (3) resource specialists. The…

This newsletter theme issue looks at infant day care models including those emphasizing early intervention with special needs infants. The lead article, "Infants in Day Care: Reflections on Experiences, Expectations and Relationships," by Jeree H. Pawl, stresses the importance of understanding infants' and toddlers' capacities and needs in…

The paper describes a program which replaced the "pull out" approach to providing remedial instruction to learning disabled middle school students with a "pull in" program characterized by participation of special education teachers in regular classes to facilitate learning for these students. The special education teachers help to modify the…

The Mainstream Assistance Team (MAT) project is a 3-year research program designed to develop, implement, and validate a prereferral intervention model. The model is a least-restrictive, preventative, ecologically-based, problem-solving approach, using a multidisciplinary team composed of a school psychologist, special educator, and general…