The need for a core curriculum for students with visual impairments, including those with additional disabilities, is evaluated. The curriculum's components include compensatory or functional academic skills, orientation and mobility, social interaction, independent living skills, recreation and leisure skills, career education, technology, and…

A study involving 22 students with learning disabilities (LD), 42 students with comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (LD/ADHD), and 86 controls, found students with LD and LD/ADHD had significantly lower scores on academic self-concept, academic attributional style, and academic self-efficacy beliefs than controls. Students with…

Students with multiple disabilities, such as severe to profound mental retardation combined with motor and visual impairment, are usually unable to engage in constructive activity or play a positive role in their daily context. Microswitches are technical tools that may help them improve their status by allowing them to control environmental…

This paper proposes that learning and teaching for pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties could be enhanced by a closer focus on emotional factors and on the careful identification of what is meaningful for them. Phil Goss, senior lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Central Lancashire draws on…

The 2007/2008 Parents of Children with Severe Special Needs Survey is conducted to obtain opinions from parents of children with severe special needs to assess their satisfaction with key areas of the education system. A random sample of 816 parents of children with severe special needs completed the survey. Severe special needs descriptions…

This paper reviews literature on the adult outcomes for children diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). It critiques methodological issues, including diagnostic definitions, research designs, sample characteristics, and assessment instruments. It examines the relationship of AD/HD to a variety of adult disorders and…

This evaluation project was designed to assess 37 persons (ages 21-72) who had moved from intermediate care facilities or skilled nursing facilities into innovative one-person or two-person community integrated living arrangements as a result of the Supported Placements in Integrated Community Environments project. The 37 persons had severe or…

This executive summary presents highlights of a study which sought to determine whether participants in the Supported Placements in Integrated Community Environments project were better off after moving to community homes from intermediate care facilities and skilled nursing facilities, and to determine the variables that contribute to quality…

This brief paper offers suggestions for parents and teachers working together to develop meaningful communication skills in deaf multihandicapped children. An intervention program developed by Jan VanDijk is described. This program involves the use of environmental engineering to teach language concepts with materials such as a calendar box with…

This packet of materials describes the experience of personnel at Poultney (Vermont) Elementary School in transitioning a student with multiple disabilities from a special day school into a regular third grade classroom. The materials outline pros and cons of the inclusion concept, requirements for inclusion to be successful, the collaborative…

This 3-year study examined how primary grade teachers and their teacher assistants taught reading and the language arts to a boy with multiple disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Qualitative research strategies are used to describe and explain the boy's participation in literacy activities from kindergarten through second grade. Findings are…

This pamphlet reprints the preface, contents, executive summary, and 27 recommendations from an extensive report on disability prevention issued by the Committee on a National Agenda for the Prevention of Disabilities. The summary notes that disability is a social, public health, and moral issue in addition to a medical issue. It cites statistics…

This book describes transdisciplinary management of multiply disabled children with vision problems and presents four theoretical models of visual assessment and three illustrative case studies in a sequence appropriate to the learning process. The first three models are intended to lead to assessment and management of the child and the last to…

The purpose of this manual, the culmination of a graduate project begun at the University of Kansas, is to assist individuals with severe, multiple disabilities and their service providers in learning to utilize nonsymbolic behaviors in an expanded, facilitative manner that leads to more consistent and predictable communication functioning. The…

The paper describes a data-based vocational curriculum for multiple handicapped adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy. Three care studies illustrate the different types of curricula that may lead to employment in the areas of micrographics filming, computer skill, and clerical work. The approach incorporates a task analysis orientation…