This commentary on "Natural Supports in the Workplace: The Jury Is Still Out" (Test and Wood), criticizes natural supports as a concept that is premised on the notion that people with disabilities are the only ones who need "support" and perpetuates the notion of control over persons with disabilities. (CR)

A study of a junior high school inclusion program that provided four students with disabilities with nondisabled student aids found the students with disabilities experienced growth in levels of independence, social networks, academic skills, and in behavior. Describes beneficial outcomes for the student aids and contributing successful program…

This article examines factors which contribute to the development of professional thinking in the helping professions, including teaching. Additional topics include the dangers of overrating and misconceiving individual choice and of confusing professional autonomy with personal freedom. (IAH)

Teaching has endured largely as an assemblage of entrepreneurial individuals whose autonomy is grounded in norms of privacy and noninterference and is sustained by the very organization of teaching work. This article examines prominent forms of collegiality and discusses their prospects for altering the fundamental conditions of privacy in…

The article describes typical conceptual problems that limit adolescents and young adults with learning disabilities in their efforts to become financially responsible. In a case study format, five money management problems are presented and resolved, including organizing financial records, budgeting, reconciling bank statements, and dividing…

Examined cohort replacement explanation of secular changes in parental socialization values, based on surveys of metropolitan area in 1958, 1971, and 1983 which revealed a significant change in parental values with greater preference for autonomy for children and less preference for obedience. Cohorts born since 1930 tended more to prefer autonomy…

Three experiments, involving five students (aged 13-20) with profound, multiple handicaps, showed that the students could effectively use microswitches to demonstrate toy preferences, to indicate preferences for social attention, and to make specific requests of educational staff in school and community settings. (Author/JDD)

This article summarizes a framework for identifying skills relevant to self-determination for individuals with disabilities and describes the use of the Life Centered Career Education secondary curriculum to promote self-determination. This curriculum consists of almost 350 lesson plans organized into domains, competencies and subcompetencies, and…

Changes that could enhance the lives of individuals with mental retardation are considered, including understanding what it is like to be limited by a diagnosis rather than experiencing individual choice, rethinking roles of service providers, and changing regulations and funding mechanisms to promote individual support facilitation. (SW)

This study investigated the effectiveness of strategy instruction designed to foster the active participation of 11 high school students with disabilities in Individualized Education Program conferences. Results indicated that strategy-instructed students identified more goals and communicated more effectively during their conferences than did the…

This study aimed to increase the independent engagement of integrated elementary students with disabilities, by decreasing prompts from aides and using pictorial activity schedules to diminish dependence on adult support. A nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design, replicated across three aide-child pairs, revealed that the intervention resulted in…

Europe's educational systems' curricula are diversified. The paper analyzes the concepts of technology and curriculum, discusses implications for common core curricula, and relates the framework to teachers' and students' autonomy. Discussions of the European dimension in education, trends in western European development, and ingredients of a…

Japanese and U.S. mothers of three- to six-year-old children answered questionnaires about child-rearing practices. U.S. mothers expected their children to follow more rules than did Japanese mothers. Japanese mothers were more likely than U.S. mothers to use physical punishment when their children showed disrespect for authority. (BC)

Research findings on the status of adults with learning disabilities are reviewed and related to changing social and work environments. Findings show that learning disabilities persist into adulthood, that manifestations of learning disabilities in adulthood are different than in childhood, and that many adults with learning disabilities are not…

The development of a structured interview designed to assess leisure satisfaction in persons with mental retardation is described along with initial reliability, validity, and leisure satisfaction findings with 40 individuals with developmental disabilities. Also considered are the rationale for measuring leisure satisfaction based on quality of…