The paper reviews published research on group instruction with persons who have severe disabilities and concludes it can be effective and efficient; however, more research is needed before specific group instruction programs should be regarded as scientifically validated training methods. (Author/CL)

Three student-use instructional materials products for severely handicapped students are described. Two are instructional microcomputer software packages (one on spatial orientation and sequencing and one on word recognition) and one is an interactive instructional videotape (on elementary greeting situations and appropriate behavior). (CL)

The study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of two procedures--"backward chaining" and "total task"--for training eight severely retarded adults to assemble two vocational tasks via a multielement design. From an analysis of the results, it was concluded that for rate of learning the total task procedure was superior. (Author/CL)

The accuracy of teaching and determination of student progress with and without data collection were measured for three teaching assistants in classrooms for severely handicapped adolescents. Results appeared to support theories that teachers' subjective judgments of student performance are more prone to error than those based on recorded data.…

Presented is an edited version of a portion of the publication entitled "Learning Steps--A Handbook for Persons Working with Deaf-Blind Children in Residential Settings" (see EC 081 084). (SBH)

Six pairs of moderately or severely handicapped adults were taught to identify sight words, with those words directly taught to one student serving as words indirectly presented to the other. Results of probes revealed that most of the adults learned incidentally presented words and maintained performance across sets of words. (Author/CL)

The status of instructional materials developed for severely handicapped students is discussed. The author suggests that in light of decreased funding, teachers should reconsider all options for material development. (CL)

The article looks at the roles volunteers serve in providing services for the severely disabled. Examples of specific cases illustrate the points made by the author. (SB)

Numerous reasons exist for using a classroom-community model with severely/profoundly handicapped youth, including skill generalization, reinforcer sampling, awareness by nonhandicapped people, appropriate role models in the community, elevated teacher expectations, parent expectations, demonstrations of competence by students, and facilitating…

Three models designed to facilitate the integration of severely disabled children into community day care settings are described: the Technical Assistance Project, a consultation model; the Staff Development Preservice/Inservice Model, an approach offering training in special needs education; and the Consultation Team Model which relies on an…

Major elements of independent living programs for the severely disabled are described, existing programs are cited, and a hypothetical program model is offered. (SBH)

Interviews with parents of deaf children, some with maternal rubella, are described in terms of the parents' concerns for the future.

Theory and research from the field of environmental psychology are reviewed and implications regarding environmental programing for severely handicapped individuals are discussed. A challenge is issued to design for severely handicapped persons environments which are both manageable and consistent with normalization tenets. (Author)

The article discusses role release, an important process in transdisciplinary procedures for severely handicapped students. Different levels and types of role release are discussed and strategies for its implementation are presented. (Author/CL)

The director of the National Media Materials Center for Severely Handicapped Persons describes its functions of public information and products, including workshop packages, verbal captioning for media, and inservice training packages. (CL)