Teaching students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at all educational and developmental levels represents a fundamental challenge for special education teachers. Teaching social skills, particularly to students with ASD, is arduous for two reasons: first, barriers in communication are paramount deficits in autism, and second, impairment in…

The feasibility of a pedagogical approach--MultiSensory Music Drama (MSMD)--was investigated in collaboration with a teacher and a student with severe/profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (S/PIMD). Educational research for this group of learners is scarce, but research has suggested the potential of integrating music and multisensory…

The telling of personal stories is a feature of everyday life. Young people with learning difficulties may find it difficult to report what has happened to them. A project was set up to investigate the impact of Storysharing® on the co-construction of personal narratives by staff and students in a special school. The current study investigated the…

Interviews were conducted with 26 classroom teachers to investigate their beliefs and attitudes about implementing integrated special education services for students with moderate and severe disabilities. Views toward integration focused on four aspects of the change: its purpose, clarity of implementation methods, effort required of teachers, and…

Guidelines are provided for integrating the dependent handicapped student (DHS) into the regular school in Alberta, Canada. A short overview comprises the introduction. Identified are two types of integration: (1) incidental contact and (2) planned contact for social, recreational, and educational activities with other students. Noted are types of…

Structured interviews were conducted with 27 elementary school principals, general educators, and special educators concerning inclusive education for students with severe disabilities. Comments were categorized and compared by professional role and level of implementation. Analysis identified both agreement and some differences in perception of…

A study investigated the perceptions of 78 special education teachers in Ohio about the implementation of a community-based, functional curriculum for students with severe disabilities. Teachers responded to a survey on their beliefs, perceptions about educational outcomes, levels of state and local support from educational agencies, how parents…

Two suburban school districts in Indiana were designated as inclusion pilot sites by the state legislature during the 1992-93 school year. Twenty-one students with moderate or severe disabilities and sensory impairments were integrated into their neighborhood schools. Observations of parents and general education teachers of these students were…

A project is described in which students with severe disabilities from a self-contained day school were successfully integrated into a program within the main building of a regular campus which included limited participation in a regular fourth grade classroom. The project was initiated after various preparations were made, including building…