Testimony concerned: (1) problems a high-risk, low-income mother had in receiving prenatal care; (2) dimensions of the infant mortality problem in Chicago, Illinois; (3) programs of the Illinois Department of Public Aid (IDPA) that address the problem; (3) the need for the IDPA to design a plan to implement SOBRA (the 1986 Sixth Omnibus Budget…

A practicum designed to help 10 first-graders successfully complete their homework, and to involve their parents as teachers at home, was implemented by a school social worker who was a member of a multidisciplinary child study team that assisted students with academic, social, and behavioral problems. Many children referred to the child study…

The paper, originally given at a 1986 Ethnic and Multicultural Symposium, provides an overview of educational opportunities for American Indian handicapped and gifted/talented students in the United States. Prevalence data of handicapping conditions among Indian children is presented for public schools, schools under the Bureau of Indian Affairs,…

Determining the language skill deficits of learning-disabled students may be difficult. They have many appropriate language skills, but may miss the subtlety of language. This is exemplified by their lack of awareness of morphemes and the important information that less-stressed morphemes provide. Developing or selecting a program to improve their…

The Delaware FIRST Program is designed to meet the needs of handicapped infants and toddlers through trained family day care providers. The program is based on a developmental family systems approach. It strives to provide families with ongoing support by offering mainstreamed family day care or respite care, by developing and/or facilitating an…

Human rights review is a process by which agencies assure that an intrusive behavioral program is appropriate in a given case. Methods are described for local education agencies to accomplish human rights review of proposed and ongoing intrusive behavioral treatment with students who have severe behavior problems. One approach to human rights…

Parents and teachers of learning-disabled children in a Christian elementary school did not have adequate knowledge and understanding of learning disabilities and the effect these disabilities have on a child's ability to function at home, in the classroom, and in other areas of life. A practicum project was developed to inform parents and…

Possible causes for adolescent suicide and its increase are reviewed, and suggestions are offered to educators and therapists for using poetry writing and visual arts to reach potential young suicide victims. At a developmental age when they become cognitively able to employ abstract concepts, adolescents find poetry writing a safe way to clarify…

The study examined associated treatment effects on State Board Examination (SBE) scores of two predominantly black nursing classes who had been exposed to different intervention methods: (1) the teaching of effective test-taking skills, and (2) a combination of that instruction with learning team methods. The SBE performance of the two groups who…

Suicide among American Indian adolescents has increased by almost 1000% over the past 20 years to become, as in Anglo society, the second most frequent cause of death in the 10 to 20 year old age group. The two major causes of adolescent suicide are acute stress and chronic depression. Environmental factors contributing to American Indian suicides…

The manual presents intervention strategies designed by Project MEDIA (Middle and Elementary Direct Instruction Alternatives) to aid the transition of both nonhandicapped and mainstreamed handicapped students from elementary (K-5) to middle (6-8) school. The manual is divided into six sections with topics of specific problem areas alphabetized…

As mandated by Illinois Public Act 84-1291, this report identifies the service needs of persons with autism, recommends service models, and offers a plan of action to ensure delivery of appropriate services within resources available. Three primary themes are emphasized: a need for intervention at the earliest point in time for persons with…

Prereferral intervention is designed to reduce referrals for special education placement, by modifying teacher instruction or management of difficult-to-teach (DTT) pupils prior to formal referral. A 3-year project is described in which Mainstream Assistance Teams offer consultation services to teachers in elementary and middle schools. The…

This paper argues that current practices in total communication classrooms have basically assigned the responsibility of communication to hearing-impaired students who must adapt to the variation in communication behaviors displayed by each of their teachers. The paper advocates use of a model communication and language policy designed to…

Ninety-two learning-disabled children, aged 5-13, participated in an evaluation of the efficacy of a television-based social problem-solving curriculum. The 52 children in the curriculum group viewed 10 episodes from the "Inside/Out" series and participated in teacher-led discussions. The episodes dealt with expressing feelings, making…