Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

With regular and special education teachers as subjects, a study of the morale of certain special education teachers was undertaken. The 10 factor analytically grounded subtests of the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire were used. The results showed no reliable differences between responses of regular and EMR elementary school teachers. Secondary female teachers of the retarded were reliably more dissatisfied with their status, curriculum issues, and relationships with other teachers. Male secondary EMR teachers tended to perceive greater rapport with their fellow teachers than did regular teachers. Elementary TMR teachers saw themselves as having relatively low status compared to regular elementary teachers. In a small sample of EMR and TMR teachers’ morale (except in one special sample) was found to be unrelated to respondents’ being located in a special or in a regular school, or to whether or not the respondent was the only special teacher in the school building. However, findings are viewed as tentative because of the small sample size and other sampling problems.

A work activity program was developed and implemented to serve 16 severely mentally retarded young adults in their home community. The core of the program was subcontract bench work and custom furniture finishing. The program served as a stable and apparently appropriate outlet of activity which served to keep most of the clients in the community and enabled a few to function as sheltered workshop employees. Increase in the level of participation in various activities of the program was observed, and significant statistical and practical gains were noted in verbal intelligence.

A model for a graduate level summer practicum utilizing the cooperation of a university and a local school system is described. Its usefulness where no demonstration school is available and its effective utilization of university faculty in key and unique roles are emphasized.

Editor's comment: Reinforcements, tangible or not, motivate performance. When learning results, reinforcements are “instructional materials.” The teacher usually commands a wide range of reinforcements from candy to stars on a chart. The following article reports on the use of a “stars-on-a-chart” type of reinforcement in motivating the work performance of adolescent, trainable mentally retarded. Though the authors, here, are more concerned with commercial than academic work, their study does provide a model for classroom use. Their success in evaluating small changes in the work behavior of trainable adolescents suggests the potential of the author's approach for evaluating the small increments of change which occur in the special classroom and underscores the need to do so. (J.J.McC.)

Editor's comment: This issue's articles concern 3 widely differing facets of the very large task of teaching retarded children. Each has something concrete to offer the teacher. Two of the articles were written by teachers, one working at the junior high school and one at the primary level. One is a detailed “how to do it” description that has worked for its originator. The second is an unusual, and unusually honest, look at the way teachers may be using their opportunities for observing in classes other than their own. Our third contributor is a member of the faculty of a university, and interested in helping teachers make their programs more effective. She writes on the area of physical education for the retarded, a neglected program in too many schools. (L.J.J.)

The term 'special physical education’ has been used with increasing frequency in the past few years. Since I have been active in a public school program of special physical education for educable mentally handicapped children, I have had the opportunity not only to use the term, but also to ponder the true meaning of special physical education. I feel that there is a definite difference in the teaching of a specialized program of physical education as compared to the teaching of physical education to students who, in addition, are 'special’ children. In other words, special physical education is a program which has been developed in order to fulfill the particular needs of the special child, and to help him reach the desired educational objectives.

Colleges and universities interested in organizing or modifying their undergraduate teacher training programs in special education would benefit from an interchange and discussion of specific course sequences and syllabi. This article is an attempt to stimulate such an interchange and discussion by presenting a detailed description of a course and its purpose in the sequence of a teacher training program.