Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

An ecological study was made of persistent repetitious movements by 12 adults in a horticultural day work program. A naturalistic video-based notation was developed and used to type these responses as small and large scale movements or sudden disruptions of ongoing activities. As measured by overall program outcome, fewer dysfunctional patterns of all types occurred during skill components in which staff were actively teaching than during nonskill or open components in which the trainee was isolated or resting. Only people with rapid fine-grained rhythms also had large scale ritualistic patterns, but no such relationship appeared for disruptive behavior. Results argued for teaching skills in terms of coordinated response ensembles, with due regard for the wealth of biological information about neural rhythm generators whose elaborate patterned outputs can be exaggerated by brain injury or medications.

Previous work established a naturalistic videotape framework to measure developmental disabili-ties at a workday training site for adults. Dysfunctional stereotyped responses occurred less frequently during training for horticultural and other skills than at other times, justifying the present study of content and timing of staff verbal interventions. An overall staff emphasis on selectively attending to workers’ successful behavior was verified by a process examination of their moment to moment interventions, including evidence of efficiency and effectiveness. Even when its content, praise, implied reinforcement after one response, most interventions controlled a later, different response that was appropriate to the horticultural task. Study of these and other ecological methods that coordinate the pace and subject matter of training across individual responses can advance service delivery and also basic theory of stimulus control and reinforcement.

This study examined the association between the level of integration achieved by secondary students with severe disabilities, and selected classroom and student characteristics. Study participants included 39 students with severe disabilities enrolled in five secondary programs implementing the Utah Community-based Transition Model (Hardman & McDonnell, 1987). The primary dependent variables included the average amount of time students (1) participated in content area classes within the regular high school curriculum, (2) received instruction from nondisabled peer tutors on personal management and leisure activities, (3) participated in the normal routines of the high school, and (4) had contact after school hours with nondisabled students serving as peer tutors. Pearson-product correlation and simple regression analy- ses indicated that (1) the proportion of “out-of-boundary” students enrolled on the classroom caseload was negatively associated with both in-school and after school integration, (2) the percent of students on the classroom caseload classified as Severely Multiply Handicapped was negatively associated with both in-school and after school integration, (3) the proximity of the student's educational placement and home was positively associated with in-school and after school integration, and (4) the presence of intense behavior problems was negatively associated with after school integration. Post-hoc analyses indicated that students placed in home school programs had significantly higher levels of integration than students enrolled in cluster school pro- grams. The results are discussed in terms of current educational placement practices for secondary students with severe handicaps.

The effects of a cognitive-process approach for teaching appropriate responses to criticism were assessed across three individuals with moderate mental retardation who were receiving vocational training. A multiple baseline design across two of the participants, and a multiple baseline design across components of the process approach for the third participant, were used to evaluate intervention effects. Generalization measures were gathered across untrained stimuli and settings. Results indicated that two participants learned this cognitive-process approach and successfully generalized their behavior across untrained stimuli. These results are discussed with respect to the viability of using a cognitive-process approach to teach employment-related social skills to individuals with mental retardation.

Self-management training has been advocated for exceptional students as a means of increasing academic and study skills, motivation, independence, and generalization of behavioral gains, while decreasing the need for external direction and supervision. This review represents an analysis of data-based studies dealing with self-management procedures (self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-reinforcement, and self-instruction) used by individuals with mental retardation served in public school settings. Although support was found for the positive effects of self-management with this population, many questions regarding efficient implementation of these procedures by school personnel remain to be answered in future research endeavors.

This study examined the relative efficacy of serial and concurrent sequencing strategies in teaching generalized grocery item location to six students with moderate handicaps. The efficacy of the strategies was assessed through a multiple baseline across subjects design. The results showed that students who received concurrent sequence training demonstrated better generalized performance in three nontrained grocery stores than students who had received serial sequence training, once training criterion was attained. However, students who received concurrent sequence training required more training trials and minutes of instruction to meet training criterion than their peers who had received serial sequence training. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for practitioners in designing community-based training programs and future research in the area of community-based instruction.

Safety concerns are prevalent in the instruction of students with special needs and should be addressed as a component of instruction across domains. The emphasis on community-based instruction and functioning in a least restrictive environment may increase the probability that students will be exposed to dangers and should learn to practice skills which are preventative or reactionary. Based on a survey of special educators and parents of children with special needs, this paper seeks to generate a list of safety skills across domains for preschool, elementary, and adolescent students with special needs.

The ability of adults with mental retardation to express facial emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear was investigated. Photographs of facial emotional expressions posed by adults classified as mentally retarded were judged by familiar and unfamiliar adults who were not mentally retarded. Happiness and sadness were accurately posed most often. The ability of adults with mental retardation to encode facial emotional expressions was correlated with assessments of interpersonal competence provided by work supervisors. Implications of the findings of this study for nonverbal social | emotional assessment, nonverbal interpersonal skills training, and future research are discussed.

The communicative performance of institutionalized persons with mental retardation was examined. Ten residents were observed in a classroom and in a residential living area. Results show that although the overall amount of interaction was low, residents initiated the majority of the interactions. There was considerably more conversation in the classroom as compared to the residential area but few differences in qualitative aspects of communication. Comparisons with previous research and implications for communication training were discussed.

While run/walking fitness programs are easy to administer to the general population, a number of unique factors exist when introducing these programs to persons with mental retardation. To date, few systematic and individualized self-paced run/walk training studies have been conducted for persons with mental retardation. In this investigation a 14 week run/walk program was implemented with five adult men with mild or moderate mental retardation whose mean age was 35 years. Each man was assigned a physical education major as a running partner. To motivate exercise participation a point system was established so the men could earn daily and weekly privileges. Analysis of pretest to posttest scores on the Cooper Twelve Minute Run/Walk Test showed each man increased the number of laps completed with improvement range from 2.5% to 22.5% and averaging 12.0%. The men met or exceeded their distance criteria goals in 23 of the 25 sessions. In addition, in a test for maintenance the men maintained run/walk goals without being accompanied by their running partner. The study demonstrated the men were able to set goals and were able to engage in appropriate fitness activities in the absence of extensive supervision. Results of this study also concur with previous training investigations and suggests that with proper training and reinforcement techniques, men with mental retardation can improve their cardiovascular fitness levels.