Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

This paper discusses the need for including sex education in the special class curriculum. The author believes that in view of changing practices and mores, the social and psychological aspects of sex must be dealt with in addition to the biological processes. The author deals with ways of selecting and preparing teachers to handle the subject and offer suggestions for involving parents.

The mentally retarded child's deficiency in arithmetic reasoning may be largely accounted for by his lower language competence. The noun phrase contains the fundamental language vehicle for presenting arithmetic or quantitative concepts. A detailed analysis of the noun phrase is presented to illustrate its arithmetic importance.

Twenty-four trainable mentally retarded school age children were matched on the basis of CA and ITPA language age. The experimental group of 12 subjects received 33 instructional sessions of 45 minutes each for language improvement over an 11 week period. The language age gain scores of the two groups did not differ significantly although the experimental group showed a mean gain 2 months higher than that of the control group. The experimental subjects below CA 13-4 made far greater gains than did those above that age.

Trainable mentally retarded adolescents were taught personal hygiene under two conditions. One group was given instruction by demonstration; the second group received the same demonstration plus filmstrip viewing. Changes in hygienic self help were measured by the teacher's and mother's ratings of behavior. The use of filmstrip increased learning in several areas of hygiene, and particularly appeared to improve generalization of newly learned habits from the classroom to the home.

Individual perceptual motor programs were planned for 24 custodial and trainable retarded children (CA 7 to 12) after each child's level of motor development had been determined in four areas: gross motor, balance, arm hand coordination, and manual dexterity. Daily one hour programs appropriate for each individual's level of motor development and level of receptivity were provided by a teacher and three aides. Initial results show gains for the experimental group to be in excess of those for the control group.

The author, from his experience as a regular classroom teacher and a prevocational counselor of retarded students in the junior high school, sees the problems of the educable retarded as part of the broader problem of educational disadvantage. He sketches the forces which have shaped the disadvantaged, the educationally relevant effects of that shaping, and the resulting conflicts between the goals of the junior high school and what it has actually provided for a large segment of its pupils. Suggestions for change are offered which focus on possible contributions of the staff of the community school.

A Special Education Clinic, established at the University of North Carolina to provide practical, supervised experience in the process of instruction, is seenas being significant in the preparation of teachers. Purposes and goals of the clinicareidentified, and administrative procedures are described. Its primary function as an instructional medium for university students allows for unusual flexibility and focus on desired behaviors and competencies. A typical day at the clinicis described.