Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

Germany had developed its public school special education programs for students with mental retardation far in advance of any other country. Many of its facets of a hundred years ago would compare well with many of our current programs. It is no wonder why it became the model for special education in most of the Western World. Perhaps there is still something we can learn by reviewing the role of these early special education programs.

Secondary programs for individuals with mild mental retardation continue to embody a contradic-tory philosophical view: they are programs charged with educating individual students with mild mental retardation to become more competitive as adults, but are organized internally along the same lines as the regular high school and as such, too often perceive their role as being one of awarding credentials to large numbers of students based upon the linear attainment of a set number of credits or courses. These credits and courses supposedly lead to success in adult settings, but their selection has been more traditionally than empirically determined. Contrary to the credential based model of education we argue for a commencement based model of education which includes five elements: (a) commencement needs to be thought of as a process, not an event; (b) commencement is a highly personal experience; (c) the requisites of adult community success need to be determined by an empirical contextual examination of the adult community; (d) individualized education plans need to be thought of as being circular rather than linear in nature; and (e) time will be the final validator of program effectiveness.

Parents’ and staff perceptions of their individual programming team (IPT) experiences were investigated. Questionnaires were completed by 103 staff and 76 parents of clients who attend a day training and residential agency for persons with mental handicaps. Generally, respondents felt part of their respective teams, and felt that their comments and suggestions were valued, but displayed mixed feelings over whether or not roles were well-defined. In terms of conference-specific participation, respondents indicated that conferences were useful, neither too formal nor jargon-filled, and had equal participation from team members, but that some conference events were not understood by all team members. Parents and staff held similar feelings toward role definitions, toward the technicalness of language at the conferences, and toward conference utility, formality and completeness. Differences of opinion for the two groups arose with respect to team cohesiveness, as well as for the comprehensibility and participatory equality at conferences. In general, results were inconsistent with previous findings. Correlations revealed that perceived equality of conference participation was unrelated to either of the general participation measures, suggesting that respondents’ conceptions of IPT membership extend beyond the conference setting. Suggestions for future action are for a clarification of the role of parents as team members and studying the effects of IPTs.

Acceptability of two different training methods for teaching menstrual-hygiene skills to young women with developmental disabilities was evaluated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, professional women in special education rated the acceptability of simulation training using a doll and simulation training on self. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used with level of learner disability (mild-moderate vs. severe) as the between-subjects factor and training method as the within-subjects factor. In Experiment 2, community evaluations of doll and self-training were assessed. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used with group of community women (university women students vs. local community women) as the between-subjects factor and training method as the within-subjects factor. Professional and community women differed in their ratings of acceptability with professional women preferring self-training and community women preferring training using a doll. Level of learner disability was not related to ratings of treatment acceptability. Overall, treatment efficacy seems to have been the dominant factor influencing professional women's views of treatment acceptability whereas community women appeared to give greater weight to intrusiveness variables. Taken together, these results suggest that opinions about treatment acceptability should be obtained from both professional and community groups. Implications for future research in treatment acceptability are discussed including issues regarding content validity and technology utilization.

Residential specialists (759) in public and private facilities were surveyed to identify the skills that they consider essential for mentally retarded adults to function in different residential settings. For each of three residential settings—unsupervised apartment, supervised apartment, and group home—the residential specialists completed the Prognostic Beliefs Scale, which consisted of 27 functional capabilities including self-help skills, independent living skills, decision making skills, and social activity skills. The choices for each capability were: essential; helpful; and not relevant for living in a given residential setting. Significant differences were found between settings on 20 of the 27 capabilities. For the Unsupervised Apartment setting, 19 of the 27 items were identified as essential, with an emphasis placed on self-help and independent living skills. For the Supervised Apartment setting, only 7 of the 27 capabilities were so identified. For the Group Home setting, none of the 27 capabilities were considered essential. In fact, even the most basic self-help skills (e.g., drinking from a cup unassisted) were considered essential by fewer than a third of the respondents. Those capabilities dealing with social relationships / intimacy were not considered important for any setting. Overall, residential specialists identified a profile of capabilities essential for a mentally retarded person to function in different residential settings.

A review of the special education literature indicates that follow-up studies of students who have exited special education have long interested researchers. Considerations for conducting studies and interpreting follow-up data are discussed. Results of studies concerning the adult adjustment of individuals who are disabled are presented briefly.

A questionnaire designed to seek information on 58 persons who are mentally retarded (defined as severely handicapped) and had exited self-contained special education programs was administered. Interviews via telephone or face-to-face were conducted with parents, verbal subjects, employers, and adult vocational and residential service providers. Data on employment rates, post-secondary training, residential status, community access, social and vocational opportunities, and civic responsibilities of subjects were collected.

Results indicated that a majority of subjects (57%) were placed in sheltered workshops or day activity centers for minimally paid, work-related activities. A total of 15% of the sample received formal post-secondary training; of those, three were employed in sheltered settings. The majority (62%) resided in their family dwellings. Twenty-six percent were in group homes, and 10% were in nursing homes or state institutions. One student (2%) lived independently. Some type of community mobility was utilized by most subjects. There is a need for expanded employment, training and residential service options in the community studied.

This study investigated the adult adjustment of 318 former special education students labelled mentally disabled (mentally retarded) one year after graduation. Current living situation (residence), marital status, and leisure activities were examined. Of particular concern were variables related to employment, such as job type and status, hours worked per week, wages earned, and the relation between employment and predictor variables which involved high school experiences that may have affected current employment (e.g., regular and special vocational education, and in- and out-of-school employment). Results of the present study were compared with a follow-up study by Hasazi et al. (1985) of 243 youths classified as mentally retarded who exited high school in Vermont between 1981 and 1983.

The Neighborhood Living Project (NLP) offers a model of supported living for residents with developmental disabilities which includes measurement of social and physical integration as valued pro- gram outcomes. This preliminary study summarizes daily counts of integration activities for 50 residents from 8 supported living sites, over an average period of 2 years. The study investigates variations in these integration opportunities among individual residents, and among individual supported living sites. These opportunities did not systematically vary as a function of the level of mental retardation or number of disabilities documented for each resident, but did vary as a function of where the resident lived. The authors conclude that, for the NLP model program sample, integration outcomes depend largely upon where a person was served, not on the characteristics of the person.

Five students with a moderate intellectual disability from a Sydney school for the disabled had repeatedly failed to master early number skills when instructed using DISTAR Arithmetic 1 (D.1.). An intervention based on Discrimination Learning Theory (D.L.T.) was devised and student performance across the two instructional methods compared, using a multiple baseline across subjects design. The D.L.T. intervention covered the same content as the D.1. program using individualized instruction in a group setting. The instruction did not require a fast paced verbal student response. Daily measures of academic engagement and mastery of skills were greater during the D.L.T. intervention.

This study compared the attitudes of college students towards a woman with disabilities participat-ing in either the Special Olympics or typical recreational activities. One class of college students saw a slide presentation depicting the woman engaged in activities at the Special Olympics. The second class saw a slide presentation showing the woman engaged in matched activities in community settings. The results indicated that the class that viewed the Special Olympic presentation regarded the woman as younger and felt that she should be in more segregated school and recreational settings. There were no significant differences in responses to questions related to functioning level, living situation, and vocational situations.