Strategies for Teaching Severely/Profoundly Handicapped Infants and Young Children

Abstract

This educational model establishes the effectiveness of employing natural, gentle, and nonadversive strategies as a means of shaping play skills. Severely/profoundly handicapped children fail to spontaneously acquire the skills for play. This approach provides structured routines designed to provide opportunities for reciprocal interactions with objects. The instructional strategies provide, in a natural way, opportunities for tracking, attending to task, and recalling routines. The procedures described in this article differ from those traditionally used with the severely retarded. Indices of effectiveness have been based on a 4-year study of 20 children. Findings have demonstrated the children participating in the demonstration program made remarkable gains on the criteria specified in the play routines as well as demonstrated developmental gains.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bates, E. The emergence of symbols: Ontogeny and phylogeny. In W. A. Collins (Ed.), Children's language and communication: Minnesota symposia on child psychology (Vol. 12), 1979.

Berry, P. , & Marshall, B. Social interactions and communication patterns in the mentally retarded . American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1978, 83 (1) 44-51.

Blatt, B. Bandwagons also go to funerals, unmailed letter 3. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 1979, 12, 288-291.

Bricker, D. and Carlson, L. An intervention approach to communicatively handicapped infants and young children. In D. Bricker (Ed.), Language resource book. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980.

Bricker, D. , & Dow, M. Early intervention with the young severely handicapped child. AAESPH, in press.

Bricker, D. , & Iacino, P. Early intervention with severely/profoundly handicapped children. E. E. Sontag (Ed.), Educational programming for the severely and profoundly handicapped. Reston VA : The Council for Exceptional Children, 1977.

Brown, L. , et al. Using the characteristics of current and subsequent least restrictive environments in development of curricular content for severely handicapped students. AAESPH Review, 1979, 4, 401-425.

Bruner, J. Organization of early skilled action. Child Development , 1973, 44, 1-11.

Haywood, H.C. , et al. Behavioral assessment in mental retardation. In D. Mc-Reynolds (Ed.), Advances in psychological assessment (Vol. 3). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1975.

10.

Irvin, L.K. , & Halpern, A.S. A process model of diagnostic assessment. In T. Bellamy , G. O'Connor , and O. Karan (Eds.), Vocational rehabilitation of severely handicapped adults: Contemporary service strategies . Baltimore: University Park Press , 1979.

11.

McLean, J. , & Snyder-McLean, L. A transactional approach to easy language training. Columbus OH: Charles E. Merrill, 1978.

12.

Mahoney, G. , & Weller, E.L. An ecological approach to language intervention. In D. Bricker (Ed.), Language resource book. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980 .

13.

Piaget, J. The origins of intelligence in children. New York : International Universities Press, 1962.

14.

Rosenblatt, D. Developmental trends in infant play. In B. Tizard and D. Harvey (Eds.), Biology of play. Philadelphia: Heinemann, 1977.

15.

Schaeffer, B. Spontaneous language through signed speech. In R. Schiefelbusch (Ed.), Nonspeech language intervention . Baltimore: University Park Press , 1979.

16.

Uzgiris, L. , & Hunt, J. Assessment in infancy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.

17.

Wehman, P. Instructional strategies for improving toy play skills of severely handicapped children. AAESPH Review, 1979, 4, 123-135.

18.

White, O. Adaptive performance assessment. In W. Seilor and L. Brown (Eds.), Teaching the severely handicapped (Vol. 5), in press.

19.

Wilcox, B. Severe/profound handicapping conditions. In S. Lilly (Ed.), Children with exceptional needs. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979.