Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

The Board of Directors of the Division on Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) have approved a position statement on employment, preparation and management of paraeducators. The position holds that: Role distinctions must be established; strategies for structured, systematic management, supervision and evaluation of paraeducators need to be developed and disseminated; legal and ethical responsibilities must be clearly stated; job descriptions should be established; opportunities for pre-service training, inservice training and professional development combined with career advancement opportunities for paraeducators and other support staff need to be made available; and preparation of teachers, therapists and other specialists to work with and supervise paraeducators must be provided. This discussion presents the full position statement and attempts to clarify and expand upon it as well as providing recommendations for further action by the educational community.

This is an exploratory analysis of the wishes of people with developmental disabilities living in both institutional and community residential placements. Those living in state schools (N = 124), nursing facilities (N = 259), ICF-MRs (N = 84) and group homes (N = 314) were asked: “If you had one wish, what would you wish for?” Chi-square analyses suggest that type of residential placement is related to the wishes of people with developmental disabilities. In all residential placements, wishes for social interaction in the form of visiting or having a relationship were common. However, the wishes then varied greatly by residential placement, e.g., those living in nursing facilities commonly wished to do activities, while few did so in state schools. Those in group homes commonly wished for a job or money comparatively with the three other residential placements. Those in ICF-MRs wished to move more so than the other residential placements. Overall, those in state schools and nursing facilities wished for less abstract items, while those in group homes wished for things thought to be more common for typical people out in the community. Wishes may be beneficial for studying the effects of deinstitutionalization by opening a door to the perceptions of reality held by these individuals.

A consensus list of 11 categories of secondary special education outcome measures and four environmental settings derived from the literature was proposed as a conceptual framework. One hundred eighty-one intervention studies that were conducted in integrated settings and implemented on the individual student level (vs. program, organizational, or community level) were analyzed, resulting in 268 different student outcome measures that corresponded to the categories comprising the conceptual framework. In addition, studies were analyzed to identify (a) trends in publication, (b) participant characteristics, (c) method of assessment, (d) psychometric properties of measures, (e) type of investigation, (f) frequency of outcome measures, and (g) environmental settings. Based upon findings, implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of person centered planning activities on several variables associated with the student's transition planning and Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting.

Person centered planning activities consisted primarily of (a) development of a personal profile, (b) creation of a vision of a desirable future lifestyle, (c) clarification of action steps / responsible parties to achieve this future vision, and (d) identification of necessary changes in the current service system.

Person centered planning had a significant effect on parent participation in transition planning/IEP meetings, but not on discussion of post-school issues during these meetings. Although other meeting character-istics were similar across groups, parents in the treatment group reported perceptions of increased prepared-ness, participation, student participation, and preparedness to discuss action steps. Treatment group families reported high levels of satisfaction for the person centered planning process.

Research has indicated that individuals with developmental disabilities evidence a number of factors that place them at-risk for HIV infection, and surveys indicate that the number of HIV and AIDS cases in this population is increasing rapidly. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an education and skills training program to reduce the risk of HIV infection in 13 persons with mild developmental disabilities. The program consisted of an educational component focusing on pertinent HIV/AIDS information and training in behavioral risk-reduction skills via four role plays (Assertive Approach, Assertive Refusal, Condom Purchase, Condom Usage). Results indicated an increase in both HIV/AIDS knowledge and risk-reduction skills. Recommendations for means to enhance skill maintenance and generalization are discussed.

Maria, a 26-year-old young woman with severe retardation, worked in a sheltered workshop. About a month before the study began, Maria started urinating in her pants during each of the three regularly scheduled breaktimes that occurred each day. Maria wet herself only during breaks and, according to her mother, never wet herself at home. Assessment and intervention involved a two-phase study. Phase 1 (functional assessment) included structured interviews and observations, hypothesis development, and hypothesis testing within ongoing activities at work. This process identified that Maria's wetting was attention-motivated. During Phase 2 (intervention), attention was provided frequently while Maria helped a staff member complete routine breaktime activities (e.g., setting up new tasks). This intervention completely eliminated Maria's wetting. Furthermore, the effect occurred immediately, lasted for at least several months, and was easily incorporated into ongoing routines within the workshop. Equally important, the intervention received very high treatment acceptability ratings from all three of the staff who were responsible for its implementation.

This study evaluates the use of a combination audio and visual prompting system to increase independent task completion by students with moderate intellectual disabilities. The prompting system involved the use of a currently available, electronic, augmentative communication device which employs the use of picture overlays and recorded speech for both visual and auditory prompting and feed-back to the listener. Four children, 10-13 years of age, diagnosed with moderate intellectual disabilities served as study participants. An A-B-A-B (withdrawal) design, replicated across two behaviors and four subjects, was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the auditory-picture prompting system on the number of steps of a chained task performed independently. Results indicate that a substantial difference in performance existed when the self-prompting device was used.

This article presents a summary description and analysis of the comprehensive special education legislation in the United States, Mainland China, and Taiwan. Commonalties and differences in these laws are discussed from the perspective of the social and economic circumstances under which they evolved and are implemented. Cross-cultural conclusions are drawn tentatively, but suggest a relationship between each country's general level of developmental and its progress in special education and developmental disabilities.