The president of the American Association on Mental Retardation addresses changes taking place within the U.S. family in general and suggests specific steps the association can take to support families in the areas of training, research, services, and policy development. (DB)

Investigated nature and content of school counselor preparation programs, with particular emphasis on adequacy of preservice training to prepare graduates to serve students with exceptionalities. National survey of 238 counselor education programs indicated that most program encouraged, but did not require, training to work with exceptional…

Describes group counseling program at large tertiary care teaching hospital aimed at recently separated men. Notes clinical experiences that challenge widely held beliefs regarding men's help-seeking behavior and capacity for emotional relatedness. Describes experiences of clinic founders as front-line mental health counselors in addressing…

Mental health counselors (n=90) rated 24 items as particularly important in working with clients with mental retardation or psychiatric disturbances. Knowledge and skills rated as significant included areas such as counseling relationship, dealing with specific psychiatric disorders, training clients in specific behavioral skills, and dual…

Analyzed 24 dyadic interactions of black clients and white or black race-avoidant counselors in quasi-counseling sessions. Uncovered following core categories related to interactional quality: smooth, exasperated, constricted, and disjunctive. Categories were explained by whether and how client introduced race concerns, client racial identity…

Investigated effects of characteristics of service-learning experiences on development of undergraduates. Participants (n=48) in service-learning courses and control students (n=48) wrote pre- and postresponses to social problems. Service-learning students made significant gains on certain cognitive dimensions and had significant increases in…

Evaluated 18 child therapy outcome studies containing 26 treatment/control comparisons on at least 1 language measure. Results indicated that child therapy had significant positive impact of children's language proficiencies; individual was superior to group treatment. Trends emerged suggesting relationships between magnitude of language change…

Compared characteristics of 234 elementary school students of average intelligence, 114 of whom were referred for psychological services. Found boys referred 4 times as frequently as girls; 16 times as many boys within relatively youngest group were referred as girls within oldest group. Groups were discriminated using mathematics achievement,…

This response to previous symposium papers (EC 604 155-161) concerning regulations and quality assurance in Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICF/MR) sees regulations as the bureaucratization of values, identifies paradoxes implicit in regulatory controls, and urges reform of the current developmental disability service…

Services provided to 12 young adults with visual impairments moving from school to work by either an educationally based or rehabilitation-based transition program were compared. No differences were found in types or number of services provided by the two programs. Both programs cooperated with other agencies and involved subjects and parents in…

According to survey responses from 87 of 174 health care/human services administrators, 54% viewed formal business education as very important; 65% ranked continuing education in marketing as an important need. Other educational needs included marketing planning and use of volunteers and media. (SK)

A personal perspective is offered on historical events in the field of mental retardation, focusing on conditions in residential institutions in Europe, Canada, and the United States and the development of educational programs. Positive developments, old problems that still exist, new problems that have arisen, and action implications are…

The vocational rehabilitation system has been largely unsuccessful in improving the lives and employability of the disabled. Proposes replacing public agencies with a more competitive voucher system of services for the disabled. This would empower the disabled to choose their own providers and to cull poor services from good. (CJS)

Provides an overview of this theme issue, "Computers for Social Change and Community Organizing." Issues of concern to community organizers, human services professionals, and political activists are discussed, including the use of computer technology to meet human needs and to promote public access to information. (LRW)

Responds to previous article by Sexton and Whiston (1994) on counseling relationship. Commends Sexton and Whiston's research review, but contends that, by adding interpersonal interaction as though it were a fourth and parallel component of counseling relationship (along with real, unreal, and working alliance components), Sexton and Whiston have…