This needs assessment instrument was developed as part of the PEERS (Providing Education for Everyone in Regular Schools) Project, a California project to integrate students with severe disabilities who were previously at special centers into services at regular school sites and students who were in special classes in regular schools into general…

This paper describes the "Soundbeam MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Controller," which allows even those students who have severe physical disabilities to create interesting aural and musical effects. Soundbeam works by emitting an invisible beam of high frequency sound inaudible to human ears. Even very slight interruptions…

This document is part of a series of monographs on community-based services for children and adolescents who are severely emotionally disturbed. The series is the product of a national study of community-based service approaches, which identified over 200 programs serving emotionally disturbed children and included visits to several programs…

This guide describes the assistance that modern technology and microcomputers can provide for individuals with significant cognitive disabilities who frequently have secondary physical, communication, or sensory impairments. Applications of technology can be made to increase access to learning for these students in the areas of motor training,…

This study used an ethnographic research methodology to identify effects of inclusion of students with severe disabilities on regular class teachers at the Harry L. Johnson Elementary School in Johnson City, New York. The school has been gradually integrating students with severe disabilities into regular classes since 1986. As of the 1991-92…

The Achieving Membership Program in Forest Lake (Minnesota) attempted to develop, document, and evaluate district level, building level, and child team level strategies to achieve full inclusion in regular schools for elementary-aged students with severe disabilities. The 3-year program had three main components: (1) establishing model…

This paper presents a brief history of communication intervention and describes recent developments which have brought about shifts in intervention focus, perspectives, and strategies, especially with people having severe disabilities. In examining how communication is important to a good quality of life, the paper points out that the real point…

The articles in this feature or theme issue describe successful approaches to positive, community-based management of severe challenging behavior. Programs include: a train-the-trainer strategy for inservice training used across the country; the use of student volunteers as community integration facilitators; a school-based intervention project…

An interdisciplinary team has developed a planned sequential and individually appropriate educational program for seven trainable mentally handicapped children (3- to 10-years-old), from five rural school districts whose functioning levels are incongruent with IQ and who had never been exposed to a school setting. (GW)

This paper reports on Minnesota's efforts to implement supported employment projects, and reports on community-based vocational activities provided by day training and habilitation centers in 1986. A survey was conducted of 96 providers of adult services throughout the state of Minnesota. Seventy-eight returned completed surveys with information…

The study examined the experiences of seven mothers of severely handicapped young adults and adolescents by means of focused interviews. A review of the literature examined qualitative research with the handicapped and the rise of parent organizations which fought for public education rights. The roles and activities of the seven mothers in such…

The document contains three issues of the newsletter of the Research and Training Center to Improve Services for Seriously Emotionally Handicapped Children and Their Families. The first issue is introduced with an article titled "Re-Thinking Emotional Disturbances in Children," by Thomas M. Young. Topics covered include the following: issues…

Interactions between teachers and multiply disabled students were videotaped, and procedures were developed to analyze the interactions, in order to assist the teachers in evaluating the relationship between their own and their student's communicative behavior. Coding categories were prepared to identify characteristics of the student's…

One hundred interactions involving 4,231 communicative acts between classroom personnel and multiply disabled students were videotaped. The resulting data were coded and analyzed, and showed that: (1) conventional communicative forms (e.g., speech, manual signs, conventional nonverbal expressions) were selected to convey information to students…

The report documents New York City's Office of Educational Assessment's evaluation of the Division of Special Education Public Law 89-313 program for the 1986-87 school year. The program is intended to provided supplemental services suited to the individual needs of participating handicapped students based upon their individual education plans…