These guidelines were developed as part of Maine's statewide project for inclusive schools, Project LEARNS (Local Education for All in Regular Neighborhood Schools). The model proposes that students with severe disabilities be provided with a range of services and supports within regular classes rather than with a continuum of placements. The…

The Student Descriptor Scale (SDS) was developed as a validation measure to determine whether students described and counted by states as "severely handicapped" were, indeed, students with severe disabilities. The SDS addresses nine characteristics: intellectual disability, health impairment, need for toileting assistance, upper torso motor…

This paper reports the results of three investigations which examined the effects of computer-based language intervention with children who have severe handicaps. The first study looked at the vocabulary learning and use and growth in social communication of eight toddlers, comparing a computer-based approach with traditional intervention…

The research brief on community-based instruction for individuals with severe disabilities is based on a manual for practitioners titled "Designing Community-Based Instructional Programming" developed at the University of Utah. The manual stresses the importance of preparing students for community participation by providing instruction in the…

This digest explains how functional language instruction can be made useful for persons with moderate to severe disabilities who are also culturally and linguistically different. It further explains how vocabulary and cultural information of the Spanish-speaking student can be included in functional language instruction for students who are from…

Intended for teachers of students with severe multiple impairments, the booklet examines the role of physical activities in the education of this population and suggests approaches to exhancing their motor development. Suggestions are offered for stimulating movement in preschool, elementary, and secondary immobile children, including tactile…

The booklet discusses the aerobic fitness capacities of severely/profoundly retarded students and discusses approaches for improving their fitness. An initial section describes a method for determining the student's present fitness level on the basis of computations of height, weight, blood pressure, resting pulse, and Barach Index and Crampton…

Issues involved in domestic living skills training with severely handicapped students are examined. The importance of verifying subenvironments within the student's home (e.g., to teach operation of a gas stove to a student with a gas stove at home) is emphasized. Instructional emphases are delineated for early childhood, elementary school, middle…

The Individualized Critical Skills Model (ICSM) is an individualized, systematic instructional process that emphasizes teaching severely handicapped learners relevant skills in the environment in which they would naturally occur. The manual is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the historical perspective of the ICSM and gives…

The report describes first year activities of a National Scope Supported Employment Demonstration Project which included a survey of supported employment providers (N=605) to define approaches used, impediments, and best practices. Among findings were the following: vocational rehabilitation facilities and developmental centers together provided…

The report describes the first 3 years of the Homecoming Project, which was designed to return disabled students in regional special education programs to regular classes in 26 local Vermont schools. Fifty-eight such students (of whom 45% were moderately or severely handicapped) were transitioned into regular classes and 19 other students at risk…

Traditionally, disabled persons have received vocational training in sheltered workshops and after evaluation have been placed into work activity, extended sheltered employment, or transitional employment programs. Transition then to competitive employment is atypical for persons with severe disabilities. Their employment situation has improved…

The report examines the status of community integration for people with the most severe disabilities. Information is drawn from literature reviews, telephone surveys of over 50 programs nationwide, and visits to 5 community service systems in 4 states. An initial section outlines basic principles for community integration, followed by a review and…

The first of 11 documents on the Hawaii Integration Project (HIP) of severely disabled students presents information on ways to tailor social studies lessons for lower elementary nonhandicapped students (K-3). The curriculum stresses similarities among students and the importance of students learning from each other. Unit I explores similarities…

The curriculum is an adaptation of a secondary social studies curriculum designed to help nonhandicapped students understand alienation. In Unit I, students explore their personal experiences of alienation either as victims or perpetrators. In lessons 1 and 2 they role play an alienating situation in the classroom and analyze such past experiences…