Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

Despite the passage of P.L. 94-142, the climate for acceptance of mainstreaming has changed very little. Contributing to this slow progress is confusion about the skills needed by the personnel involved in mainstreaming. A review of representative literature revealed limited, though significant, research outlining the competencies needed by regular education and special education teachers, the changing role of special education teachers, and the interfacing of competencies needed by educational personnel in regular and special education. Results of the studies reported in this paper provide direction for future action in comprehensive preservice and inservice teacher education.

Few parent training models have been developed which include strategies for coordinating instruction between home and school. The present paper examines parent evaluation of an integrated home/ school program model. Parent satisfaction with various components of this program suggests the need to offer training experiences to interested parents which allow them to take an active role in facilitating their child's educational growth at home.

Three methods which classroom teachers could use to guide and encourage interactions between severely retarded and nonhandicapped students in an integrated classroom situation are described: (a) the systematic design and arrangement of classroom organization, structure and materials, (b) the implemen-tation of programs to train severely retarded students in socialization skills, and (c) the incorporation of instructional programs designed to train and motivate nonhandicapped students to interact with severely retarded students. The relevant research related to all three approaches is cited.

This study was concerned with investigating how boys CA 10 through 14 in regular and special education classrooms for the Educable Mentally Retarded perceived friendship, leadership, and game playing in relation to three social types (egocentric, interpersonal, and sociocentric). Regular and special class students showed a similar perception on both leadership and game playing; however, EMR students differed significantly in regard to friendship by being more egocentric than their regular classroom peers.

The feasibility of using two structured interview techniques to obtain information from mentally retarded adults was explored. The nominal group technique was used to identify major problems faced by 58 mildly or moderately retarded adults in three domains: employment, community living, and social relationships. Problem statements generated by nominal group participants were used to construct a forced choice inventory which was then used to secure problem priority data from an additional 101 mentally retarded adults. Results suggest that both the nominal group technique and forced choice inventory are viable methods for obtaining valid input from habilitation service consumers.

Personally relevant and personally irrelevant attitude differences toward educable and trainable mentally retarded children were investigated. Results indicated that attitude differences occur only when items reflect personal relevance. Results are discussed in relationship to earlier studies and in relationship to the advantages of multidimensional scaling procedures.

Systematic and replicable procedures for developing community-based vocational curricula for severely handicapped persons are presented. A basic assumption is that the vocational curriculum (i.e., the determination of what skills to teach) lies in the local community and is based on the demands of competitive employment settings.