This article compares recommended practices identified by the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Similarities and differing emphases are noted in the areas of inclusion, family involvement, assessment, program planning, curriculum and intervention strategies, service…

This article explores the relationship between the inclusion movement and the development of national standards for "all students," and outlines their implications for technology-assisted improvements in assessment of students with disabilities. Testing accommodations, such as input/output adaptations, can be facilitated with technology, and new…

Discusses challenges facing secondary social studies teachers in attempting to develop in learning disabled students an awareness of civic rights and responsibilities. Summarizes research on adolescents with learning problems into demands of work habits, knowledge acquisition, and expression. Describes the strategies intervention model for…

Twenty-eight children with and without disabilities were observed during free play in integrated early childhood programs, and associations among program quality indicators and children's play were analyzed. The study attempted to predict dynamic/process measures of program quality (teacher behavior) from global and structural measures of quality…

Discusses 10 questions that physical education teachers can use as a beginning guide for mainstreaming physically handicapped students. (GLR)

Reviews and synthesizes court rulings that have expressly discussed the factor of economic cost in considerations of appropriateness of special-education programing. Advises educators to expend their resources in providing appropriate individual special-education programs rather than litigating the costs of those programs. (197 references) (MLF)

Interviews with children and a review of the research identified critical factors in teaching reading comprehension to special needs learners in regular classrooms. These include (1) knowing one's students; (2) consideration of the socialization skills being taught in the classroom; (3) linking learning to the real world; and (4) using an…

An overview of issues in the education of children with mental retardation in Arab countries is presented, focusing on educational history, prevalence of mental retardation, residential and special day schools, teacher training, student evaluation, integrated education, and early childhood special education. (Author/JDD)

Questionnaire responses from 6 samples totaling about 2,000 third- and fourth-grade teachers were analyzed regarding the extent to which gifted and talented students receive differentiated education in regular classrooms. The study found that teachers made only minor modifications in the regular curriculum, with provision of thinking and…

Analyzes several cases involving students with disabilities and assesses how courts determine the supervisory standard of care for disabled students injured on school premises. Explores the extent to which special characteristics of students with disabilities might affect the standard of care owed to such students. (MLF)

A qualitative research approach with 20 secondary vocational teachers explored issues related to grading students with special needs, including (1) successful grading practices and problems/concerns of teachers; (2) teachers' perceptions of the messages that grades communicate; (3) preservice and inservice teacher preparation for grading; and (4)…

This study involving three autistic and four nondisabled preschool children found that a peer-initiation intervention produced increases in peer initiations and social interactions when the teacher verbally prompted, but not without verbal prompts. When a correspondence training/visual feedback package was implemented, peer initiations and social…

This study compared peer acceptance of 100 mainstreamed (mostly learning-disabled) elementary school students with acceptance of classmates of low, average, and high reading ability. Analysis found that mainstreamed and low-ability students were similar in peer acceptance, as were high-and average-ability readers. (Author/PB)

Critiques special education as a professional and institutional practice and public education as social practice. Compares the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and the Regular Education Initiative. Argues that school organization and specialized professional culture are not conducive to educational excellence and equity and proposes…

This article discusses ways in which an individualized and collaborative model of staff development can prepare both general and special education teachers to make instructional adaptations to meet the needs of mainstreamed students. Expert systems can support individualized staff development and aid in placement and followup of mainstreamed…