This practicum sought to reduce the delays in referral to otologists for medical care to alleviate hearing losses and reduce risk of delays in language and academic performance. The practicum conducted inservice training programs to improve the identification of conductive pathologies in preschool and school-age children by 34 speech pathologists.…

Preventive and coping strategies that provide school security include techniques to obtain and analyze data in order to identify trends and to develop a school security needs assessment. Other security measures involve special training for teachers, supervision, and a crisis plan. Administrators who examine and upgrade their schools' security…

This newsletter issue contains four articles all addressing aspects of intervention with infants and toddlers having communication disorders. The first, "Assessing the Communication of Infants and Toddlers: Integrating a Socioemotional Perspective" (Barry M. Prizant and Amy M. Wetherby) describes a new instrument, the Communication and Symbolic…

This document presents papers prepared for the 1978 Special National Workshop on Mental Health Services in Local Jails. The articles provide information on several topics: (1) the nature and extent of mental health needs in local jails; (2) assessment and intervention approaches for addressing these needs; (3) mental health service delivery…

Superhero play among preschool children appears to be quite different from socio-dramatic play. While exhibiting characteristics of socio-dramatic play, superhero play does not facilitate the development of social or verbal skills. Observations of television programs indicated that superhero play provides little opportunity for verbal reasoning,…

This document describes the early childhood services program in Alberta, Canada and its goals for accomplishment with children, within families, and in the community. Early Childhood Services (ECS), Alberta Education, is concerned with the provision of a coordinated system of local, regional, and provincial programs and services to meet the…

Possible reasons for the nationwide increase in the number of children identified as learning disabled (LD) include abrogation of general education's responsibility toward difficult to educate children, increasing differences in preservice general and special education training, the increase in parent/student rights litigation, and parental…

A study examined the impact of instruction on the metacognitive strategies of five fifth-grade students whose vocabulary knowledge test scores were two or more stanines higher than their comprehension test scores. The students were administered "The Informal Reading Inventory" to determine their appropriate functional levels and the…

The document outlines steps in the process of developing intervention assistance teams, which are described as school-based, problem-solving groups whose purpose is to assist teachers with intervention strategies for dealing with students' learning needs and interests. Objectives include the following: (1) to enable the school district's…

Clinicians who work with at-risk older adults are often faced with the difficult decision to override their client's civil rights and force institutionalization. Many times the professional is pressured by police or a housing manager to "just do something" with the judgmentally impaired older client. Clinicians faced with these decisions may…

This paper discusses the basic content of Titles I and II of Public Law 99-457: the Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act, and their implications for providing early intervention services to rural populations. "Title I: Services to Infants and Toddlers" discusses provisions of the law, its rationale, definitions of terms…

This joint hearing before the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and the House Committee on Education and Labor focused on educationally and economically disadvantaged children. Of special concern were children living in poverty, those from single parent families, and those whose parents are teenagers. Educational programs are needed to…

The monograph summarizes research on students' beliefs or ideas about: (1) teachers' instructional behavior, (2) cognitive processes used during instruction, (3) differential treatment by teachers, (4) attributions for student performance, and (5) classroom learning environments. Students' cognitions or thought processes during instruction are…

The manual is designed to provide information and support to parents of emotionally disturbed children. The first chapter, "Feelings Come First," deals with such topics as identifying unusual behavior, impact on parents and other family members, coming to terms with feelings, and advice from other parents. Chapter 2, "Finding Some Help," defines…

The study examined effects of training older siblings (ages 6-8) of six 1- to 3-year-old infants and toddlers with Down syndrome to employ social communication strategies in play sessions. Three secondary purposes included evaluating effects of intervention upon the communication skills of the Down syndrome children, effects of intervention on…