The Role of Supervisory Personnel in Programs for the Severely Handicapped

In attempting to provide a full range of educational services to severely handicapped persons, school systems will encounter many problems over and above those which can be handled by qualified classroom teachers. Among these problems are curriculum development, staff in-service training and consultation, program evaluation, and educational program liaison with other school and community programs. To handle these problems, supervisory personnel must receive training beyond that given to regular administrative personnel. This article describes the areas in which training should be provided.

The Presence of Allergies among Severely Handicapped Persons

The presence of allergies among severely handicapped persons is often not suspected because of the number and type of learning and behavior problems they exhibit. As a result, classroom teachers may encounter students enrolled in programs for the severely handicapped who have undetected allergies. Since allergies can produce reactions which greatly interfere with a student's ability to attend to instruction, it is essential that teachers know what an allergy is and how allergies can affect learner performance. This article describes how teachers can screen their students for allergies and participate in a treatment program.

An Extended Evaluation Model for Severely Handicapped Persons

This paper presents an extended evaluation model which provides a close and interactive conceptual link between evaluation and treatment processes. For some time there has been a trend in traditional vocational (re)habilitation practices to separate evaluation and treatment as if they were somehow distinct entities. This separateness can no longer continue, particularly now that vocational (re)habilitation programming is being broadened to include those with the most severe handicaps.

The Effects of Physical Time-Out on the Aggressive Behaviors of a Severely Emotionally Disturbed Child in a Public School Setting

A firm physical restraint procedure was applied to a 6-year-old severely emotionally disturbed male in a self-contained special education classroom in a public school. The treatment procedure consisted of physically holding the subject, contingent on the occurrence of verbal aggression, a response frequently accompanied by physical aggression. Following each instance of verbal aggression, the subject was placed in a “basket hold”; this consisted of crossing the child's arms in front of him while the adult simultaneously stepped behind and sat him on the floor between his legs. The subject's eyes were covered by one hand of the adult to reduce external stimuli and to firmly establish the security of adult control. The subject was not released from physical time-out until all verbal and physical aggressions had ceased for a period of 30 seconds. Experimental sessions were conducted through an A-B-A-B design, where A consisted of baseline sessions and B of sessions in which physical time-out was initiated. The data indicate that the restraint procedure was effective in significantly reducing the maladaptive aggressive responses of the subject in the public school setting.

Elimination of Self-Injurious Behavior in a Profoundly Retarded Adolescent Using Intermittent Time-Out, Restraint, and Blindfold Procedures

Alternative strategies for reducing self-injurious behavior are needed in order to provide effective service to clientele for whom such behavior is a serious problem. A procedure involving the intermittent presentation of time-out, restraint, and blindfolding produced complete suppression of self-slapping in a profoundly retarded adolescent. A variable-ratio two schedule of time-out and physical restraint contingencies was effective in reducing and maintaining a low level of self-abusive behavior. While some of the treatment effect was lost during and after exposure to a variable-ratio six schedule, the addition of a blindfold procedure to the variable-ratio two resulted in complete suppression of self-slapping. A punishment contrast effect observed during the initial return to baseline conditions was eliminated through complete suppression of the self-abusive behavior during the final intervention procedure. This behavior suppression generalized across time and settings in which the contingencies had never been applied. In addition, this suppression was associated with an increase in adaptive behavior and did not produce any undesirable collateral responding. Two-year follow-up data indicate that complete response suppression has been maintained.

Using the Characteristics of Current and Subsequent Least Restrictive Environments in the Development of Curricular Content for Severely Handicapped Students

This paper is designed to address several critical issues that pertain to the development of longitudinal curricular content for use with severely handicapped students. More specifically, to emphasize: (a) the importance of the principle of partial participation; (b) the need to create a wide variety of adaptations that might allow severely handicapped students at least to participate in many environments and activities from which they have been excluded; and (c) a rationale for using current and subsequent environment orientations and ecological inventory strategies in curriculum development processes. In addition, the authors present a cursory example of how ecological inventory strategies and current and subsequent environment orientations might be combined to generate chrononogical age appropriate curricular content.

A Comparison of Three Strategies of Reinforcement on Two-Choice Learning Problems with Severely Retarded Children

Three severely retarded children were given training on several two-choice discrimination problems. Each discrimination problem consisted of displaying two ordinary children's toys and asking the child to point to the toy named by the experimenter. The names consisted of three-letter (consonant-vowel-consonant) nonsense syllables. Training on each problem was conducted under one of three different reinforcement conditions. In the condition labeled “specific reinforcement,” correct choices were followed by the opportunity to play with the toy to which the child pointed. Under the “nonspecific reinforcement” condition, correct responses were followed by the opportunity to play with a toy offered by the experimenter, but which was not a part of the training pair. In the “variable reinforcement” condition, the child was offered, on correct pointing occasions, either the toy to which he or she pointed, or the toy which was not one of the pair being trained, in random order. The results indicated the level of correct responding was higher under the “specific reinforcement” condition than under either of the two other conditions, even when the latter were “weighted” for strength of reinforcement potential. It was concluded that a strategy of reinforcement which includes cue values of the discriminative stimulus may strengthen the learning process.

Signs Used in Manual Communication Training with Persons Having Severe Communication Impairment

An examination of 20 manuals designed to teach sign communication to persons with severe communication impairment revealed over 850 words appearing in two or more manuals. These words are listed in alphabetical order with their frequency of occurrence. The list is designed to show what is being taught, not what should be taught. Because it is empirically based, it is thought to represent parents', teachers', and clinicians' ideas about which signs are most needed, and it should be of aid to persons designing similar basic sign vocabularies and to persons who wish to do research concerning early sign training for similar individuals.

Modifying School Buildings for the Severely Handicapped: A School Accessibility Survey

This article describes considerations in modifying school buildings for maximum accessibility for severely handicapped students. A field-tested survey designed for use by school administrators is also included in its entirety.

Improving the Leisure-Time Behaviors of Severely/Profoundly Mentally Retarded Children through Toy Play

The present paper describes procedures that were designed to promote the toy play of a group of severely/profoundly mentally retarded children in a classroom setting. Time sampling procedures were used to assess the students' play behavior during a 30-minute play period. Group and individual interventions were established based on the pretests and probe tests. Changes were made according to student needs, based on the data collected. The results that are presented and discussed suggest improvements in the students' toy play.