Compared to nonreactive toys (ones without or with restricted sensory feedback), reactive toys had a substantially greater influence on the amount of time each of three severely disabled children (6-9 years old) spent in manipulative activity. Comparative effects of two toy classes on visual attention to toy play were inconclusive. (CL)

Guidelines are offered for encouraging positive and predictive classroom behaviors from emotionally disturbed/hearing impaired students. Four suggestions are discussed: rewarding desired behavior, allowing students to decide, observing from other viewpoints, and setting written goals. (CL)

Deinstitutionalization, now government policy in British Columbia, may signal the return of formerly institutionalized persons (including those with severe/profound retardation and multiple disabilities) to their communities. Possible problems may include community resistance and inadequacy or inappropriateness of existing services. (CL)

Evaluation of Play Unit for the Severely Handicaped (PUSH) designed for the living room of a residential area used by 16 severely retarded multiply handicapped persons revealed that the impact of the unit was individualized and diverse, and that the responsiveness of the environemt's components appeared to be important. (CL)

A multiple baseline-across behaviors design was employed to assess the efficacy of a self-control procedure in eliminating three stereotypic behaviors of a 15-year-old behaviorally disordered, deaf, institutionalized student. The self-control procedure eliminated two of the three target behaviors and significantly reduced the rate of the third.…

Student preference of sensory reinforcers was investigated using three mentally retarded, multiply physically disabled males (four-seven years old). Results suggest that severely disabled students have individualized preferences for various sensory reinforcers. (Author/CL)

The case study demonstrates the use of negative reinforcement for initial response conditioning of a seven-year-old deaf, blind, physically handicapped boy. A systematic procedure for reinforcer sampling failed to identify items for positive reinforcers. A procedure for removal of an aversive stimulus (negative reinforcement) was then successfully…

The purpose of this study is to describe some of the ways deaf-blind projects collect National Technical Assistance Consortium for Children and Youth with Deaf-Blindness (NTAC) census data, compare Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Child Count and NTAC census data for the ten states included in this study and identify issues and concerns…

Discussed by a man with cerebral palsy complicated by deafness is his personal perspective on the multiple disability, the education of deaf and cerebral palsied children, and independent living skills in the deaf cerebral palsied adolescent and adult. (DB)

Essentially, videotape helps the teacher learn about herself, her children, her methods and the larger dynamics of her total group or class. (Authors)

Described briefly is a mother's personal account of an anxious adoption of a 2-month-old child, the often fruitless search for medical evaluation of the child who was found to be brain damaged, retarded, and partially sighted, and the resulting family problems. (CB)

Briefly described are the blind mentally handicapped child's perception of the physical world and his language development. (CB)