Two children with severe disabilities who used electronic communication aids were taught to extend conversations as a result of implementation of an intervention strategy based on high-probability request sequences. Both participants had been selected as a result of the discrepancy between their propensity to respond to obligatory conversational bids (e.g., a question such as “What did you do at recess?”) and their propensity to refrain from responding to nonobligatory conversational bids (e.g., comments such as “I played kickball at recess”). Both learners' conversational maintenance skills improved as a result of the procedure. Educational implications are discussed.
To better understand the conditions facilitating social relationships, we studied the impact of educational placement on the social life of students with severe disabilities. Several indicator variables were used to assess students' social relationships, including measures of social contacts, social support behaviors, and friendship networks. Placement at two points along the continuum of services-general education and self-contained classrooms-constituted the independent variables under study. Two matched groups of students with severe disabilities, one from each placement type, served as participants. The results from direct observation and interviews indicated that: (a) students placed in general education had higher levels of social contact with peers without disabilities; (b) students in general education received higher levels of social support from others, as well as provided higher levels of social support; and (c) those students had substantially larger friendship networks composed primarily of peers without disabilities. Implications regarding the impact of the continuum of services on students' social lives are discussed, along with general issues relating to the development and maintenance of social relationships.
Facilitated communication, a technique that is said to enhance the communicative abilities of individuals with severe language impairments, has engendered much controversy. Biklen and Duchan (1994) and Green and Shane (1994) present two sides of this controversy. Biklen and Duchan argue that from a constructivist's perspective, the primary issue is the underlying cultural presuppositions regarding mental retardation and science rather than the efficacy of facilitated communication. Green and Shane present research evidence challenging the efficacy of facilitated communication within a positivist's framework. We present a brief review of science as viewed through positivists' and constructivists' lenses. Using the framework of social constructivism adopted by Biklen and Duchan, we disagree with them on three points: (a) even though the process of constructing scientific knowledge is strongly affected by human social, emotional, and cognitive processes, it also involves matters of fact that cannot be ignored; (b) social constructivists' accounts of science can be accepted as descriptive without being prescriptive; (c) although we cannot prove that belief systems, including positivism and social constructivism, are true or false in the larger sense, belief systems have differential consequences for technological changes of the type that are valued by persons with severe impairments of communication.
Research is examined which pertains to the use of family members in interventions with children having severe handicaps. First, interventions addressing inappropriate behavior are reviewed and then skill acquisition research is discussed. In general, evidence to date suggests that family members can be effective interventionists. Some critical issues are discussed including the child focus of the literature, generality, measurement, and cost-effectiveness. Implications for further research are delineated.
Vocalizations which are self-stimulatory in nature not only disturb the institutional living environment for all residents, they also impede, and sometimes completely stop, the learning of appropriate living skills by the vocalizer. This report details the use of an educative procedure which will effectively eliminate this behavior. The overcorrection technique reviewed in this study was effective in each setting in which it was applied even though it was not possible to administer training sessions daily and the patient was allowed to self-stimulate during treatment delivery. Follow-up measures taken 5 ½ months after termination of the treatment attest to its continued effectiveness.
Rationale and related research are presented to support an individual curriculum sequence (ICS) model for the education and training of severely/multiply handicapped persons. The article discusses ...
Theory and research from the field of environmental psychology are reviewed. Implications regarding environmental programming for severely handicapped individuals are discussed. A challenge is issued to design for severely handicapped persons environments which are both manageable and consistent with normalization tenets.
