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 a nd are implemented. Cross-cultural conclusions are drawn tentatively, but suggest a relationship between each country's genera I level of developmental and its progress in special education a nd developmental disabilities.

Contemporary best practices suggest a multifaceted intervention to effectively manage, maintain, and generalize the reduction of maladaptive aggressive behaviors. This article outlines a community-based procedure used to assist a twenty-five year old dually diagnosed male with a history of aggressive and antisocial behavior to develop self-management skills. A social-learning program was implemented which combined traditional behavior modification techniques with cognitive intervention strategies. The results were a significant reduction in the incidence of both physical and non-physical aggression, allowing the individual to maintain competitive employment and personal residence. The importance of collaboration between professionals and family and a systematic plan insuring staff consistency are discussed as underlying success in achieving self management of behavior.

Regardless of ability level or chronological age, communication and social skills remain the primary challenges in the education of persons with mental retardation. The pragmatic function of language is potentially a performance area of particular importance in that it integrates interpersonal and language capacities into the social aspects of communication. This multivariate study investigates nonverbal pragmatics in students with and without mental retardation at three developmental levels. The data revealed an unexpected degree of commonality in the use of pragmatics between the two student populations with differences related sometimes to the frequency and other times to the inappropiateness of nonverbal communicative functions. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for social skills training, inclusion and community integration.

The implementation of inclusive education programs is progressing in special education despite equivocal support and controversy surrounding the efficacy of this service model. This study contributes performance data on three youngsters with moderate to severe developmental disabilities observed in both inclusive integrated and self-contained segregated kindergarten settings. Academic, peer social, adult social, and engagement data were compared during group activity, transition, free choice and seat work for each child in both integrated and segregated settings. The results support the conclusion that individual child and setting characteristics transcend administrative model in determining engagement levels across social and academic domains. This article encourages the availability of alternative placement options and the authors call for systematic instructional planning and personnel training based on individual child assessments.

This paper reports a detailed analysis of the substantive content of ETMR over the first twenty five years of the journal's publication. A random selection of approximately one-quarter of the articles published were examined for professional objective and topical focus, age and ability level of target population, research or theoretical approach, author's discipline and professional position, and applicable target setting. These variables were examined across four time periods defined by major historical events impacting the field Of mental retardation. The results yield conclusions regarding past and current trends in the literature as well as implications for future directions.

This paper investigates the social judgments of educationally integrated and segregated students with mental retardation toward their same-age peers who are mentally retarded and nonretarded. Social judgment data were derived from sixty students (twenty at each of the elementary, junior, and senior high levels) half of whom were primarily integrated and half of whom were primarily segregated. Analyses revealed that elementary level students rated peers who were retarded and nonretarded significantly lower than did either older group. Similarly, segregated students rated both peer groups more negatively than did integrated students at every age level. Only junior high integrated students discriminated between the two peer groups rating nonretarded students more positively. Generally it may be concluded that maturity and integration foster more positive attitudes among students with mental retardation toward both retarded and nonretarded peers. The idiosyncratic discrimination by junior high retarded students in favor of nonretarded peers is compatible with normal child development findings which emphasize the importance of social identification and peer status at this level.