This paper describes an integrated, extended year pilot program which integrated 18 preschool and elementary children with severe disabilities into community recreation programs. The paper discusses the program development process; preliminary results of the program; and evaluative feedback from recreation agency staff, nondisabled children, and…

This article describes addition of a "learn a routine" procedure to functional visual assessments of children with severe neurological and physical disabilities. The procedure capitalizes on the child's interest of the moment and provides information on the child's patterns of responses, ability to accommodate to variations of a stimulus, and…

This article describes the communication development program of a cooperative association of 55 Illinois school districts, which provides special education services for children and adolescents with low incidence disabilities including severe communication disorders. It examines the program's philosophy, principles, and practices; its authentic…

This article discusses ethical questions in providing prenatal services, including testing and genetic engineering, and medical interventions with neonates and other very young children who have severe disabilities. It explores ways to enhance ethical decision making, including recruitment for multidisciplinary teams or other committees of adults…

Guidelines are presented for individualizing daily schedules or routines to reflect better the preferred lifestyles of persons with severe handicaps. Four dimensions that can be systematically manipulated to address challenging behavior are presented, including timing of routines, form of the activities, pattern of succession of activities, and…

This study examined 40 articles published in the "American Journal on Mental Retardation" or the "Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps" (JASH) from 1976-78 and 1986-88. Both journals published low numbers of articles with ecological validity in the late 1970s, but JASH subsequently increased…

Educators (n=84) were randomly assigned to one of two groups reading either an ecological assessment report or a developmental assessment report written for the same student with severe disabilities. Analysis indicated that educators reading the ecological assessment had significantly higher expectations for student accomplishment than those…

In vivo instruction consisting of a constant time-delay procedure used in combination with multiple exemplars of strangers, lures, supervisors, and sites was used to teach three adults with severe mental handicaps a generalized response to the lures of strangers. Participants acquired the response during training, but transfer to probe trials was…

These reflections on EC 604 101 (a study of teaching adults with severe disabilities a generalized response to the lure of strangers) provide background information on the research methodology used, outline limitations of the study, discuss ethical issues in safety research, and examine ways to make teaching a generalized response more effective.…

Eighteen mothers of children with severe disabilities participated in classes led by a counselor on topics relating to cognitive processes associated with guilt and self-blame. Results showed significant reductions in measures of guilt, negative automatic thoughts, internal negative attributions, and depression, compared to control group mothers.…

Four children without disabilities and 2 adult trainers interacted with 2 children (ages 11 and 12) with severe and multiple disabilities to determine effect on target motor behaviors. Both the adult instruction and peer social interactions increased motor responses. No differences were noted between adult instruction and peer social interaction.…

Semi-structured interviews with 21 nonhandicapped high school students indicated that their experiences with peers with moderate to severe disabilities had resulted in such benefits as improved self-concept, increased tolerance of other people, reduced fear of human differences, and development of personal principles. Areas of difficulty were also…

The study, using qualitative research methods with six families with severely or multiply disabled adopted children, found that interactions with school, medical, and other personnel were extremely stressful for all families, as were medical crises, difficulties in accessing appropriate services, and adolescents' behavior problems. Effective…

Computer-assisted instruction can aid in the implementation of British National Curriculum requirements with children having profound and multiple learning difficulties. Suggestions are given for developing visual skills, auditory skills, cognitive skills, vocalization, communication, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills. (DB)

This study examined 40 articles published in the "American Journal on Mental Retardation" or the "Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps" (JASH) from 1976-78 and 1986-88. Both journals published low numbers of articles with ecological validity in the late 1970s, but JASH subsequently increased…