Suchergebnisse

Despite current interest in promoting self-determination, the extent to which self-determination instruction is provided to students with visual impairments remains uncertain. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of a sample of teachers of students with visual impairments about issues that are related to self-determination.

The commitment to ensuring that students participate fully in regular educational activities has necessitated a reevaluation of educational practices. Although community-based instruction has long been recognized as the best practice, both its effectiveness and long term value have been questioned. Several researchers have suggested that such instruction remains a pull-out intervention and cannot be justified. The purpose of this study was to obtain from a sample of secondary level educators their opinions on community-based instruction and inclusive education. The findings revealed that the respondents supported both approaches and suggested that students benefitted from each. The implications of the findings are discussed, with an emphasis on basing educational programming on the student's needs, wishes, and interests.

The authors contend that least restrictive environment involves more than merely placing severely handicapped students in regular schools. In addition to regular school placement, systematic efforts to promote positive interactions between severely handicapped students and their nonhandicapped peers must be made. An array of formal and informal methods for promoting integration, directed toward both school staff and students, are provided to assist teachers of the severely handicapped in systematically integrating their students into the regular school milieu.

This article discusses the relationship between evidence-based practices (EBPs) and values in research and practice pertaining to people with severe disabilities. The importance of basing educational and habilitation practices on substantial scientific evidence for practical, moral, and legal reasons is acknowledged given the prevalence of unsubstantiated fads in this arena and the manifest success of many empirically established EBPs. It also addresses the complexity of issues surrounding the identification and use of EBPs in relation to quality of life and rights-based advocacy for this population. EBPs are discussed in a set of five different relationships with values-based practices (VBPs). In the best of cases, EBPs are consistent with and support VBPs as has often been the case in the recent history of research, practice, and social change. In other cases, the relationship between EBPs and VBPs are more complex and require thoughtful discussion in moving ahead with the important work of establishing and implementing EBPs at scale. The differences between efficacy and effectiveness are discussed in the context of the much needed work on implementing EBPs at a national scale. Examples of necessary information to aid implementation are presented. The necessity of ongoing data collection and implementation of EBPs with fidelity are highlighted.

This study investigated the effects of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI) on the academic skill performance of three junior high school students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. The academic skills taught were aligned to the district general curriculum, and extended benchmarks were individually determined. The students were instructed to engage in a self-regulated problem-solving strategy, as well as to use one or more additional student-directed learning strategies. The results suggested that all students were able to acquire and maintain target academic skills to mastery levels. Also, all stakeholders had positive perceptions about the value of such instruction. The implications of these findings relative to the general curriculum initiative are discussed.

This investigation examines the effects of a social skills training program using self-instructions in facilitating the acquisition and generalization of two social behaviors in a work setting. Specifically, this study examined the effects of the training package in increasing the percentages of initiations with a supervisor when employees ran out of work materials and/or needed assistance. The results indicated that the training effectively increased the percentages of occurrence in one or both of the target behaviors for all 5 participants. Furthermore, the training resulted in generalized responding across settings for all participants and maintained for up to 13 weeks. These results suggest the feasibility of a social skills training package using self-instructions to help persons with moderate and severe handicaps acquire, maintain, and generalize social behaviors in a work setting.

Although the importance of safety skills instruction is well acknowledged and available data suggest individuals with varying disabilities sustain injuries from accidents at a rate that is comparable to or may exceed the normative population, many students do not receive systematic safety skills instruction. Findings on the extent to which students are provided such instruction have been based largely on teacher input and parent input, with little or no input provided by students. The purposes of this investigation were to ask students with intellectual and other disabilities across two states about the safety skills they learned in school and to assign value to each safety skills' content area. In addition, this investigation sought to identify differences in safety beliefs between students with mild disabilities and students with moderate to severe disabilities. Results indicated that both groups valued safety skills instruction, but students with moderate to severe disabilities assigned a higher level of importance to safety than their peers with mild disabilities. Implications for future research are discussed.

This study investigated the effects of self-monitoring instruction delivered by peer tutors on the occurrence of academic survival skills displayed by five middle school students with severe disabilities. We employed a multiple baseline across subjects design. Instruction was provided in general education content classes. The students were taught to indicate on a self-recording sheet if they performed each of 11 skills. Data revealed an increase in the percentages of occurrence of survival skills across all students. Also, their general education teachers indicated that they observed a positive change for four of the five students. All students indicated that they believed that they were part of the class and reported an increase in their classroom participation. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Teacher shortages in special education in general and, specifically, in severe disabilities continue to be acute, despite concentrated personnel preparation efforts. The application of telecommunications technologies is viewed as a potentially effective way to systematically impact these shortages. We describe two federally funded distance education programs in the area of severe disabilities, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte project (UNC Charlotte) and project UPLIFT (Utah Consortium for Low Incidence Faculty and Teachers), each of which uses a multi-university consortium. We also discuss the technologies employed in each project. Preliminary data illustrating the use of end of course student evaluations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of distance education course delivery in the area of severe disabilities. The potential benefit of preparing personnel via distance delivery through using multi-university consortia is discussed and topics for future research are suggested.

The effects of a multicomponent self-management program on the instruction-following behaviors of five students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities are investigated in a vocational skills training program that included self-generated verbal prompts, picture cues, double instructions, and reinforcement. Training components for individual participants were added as needed to facilitate task performance. The percentage of appropriate responses to both trained and untrained instructions was evaluated within a multiple baseline design. Results demonstrated that training was effective in teaching the students to respond appropriately to instructions. Furthermore, the findings suggested that the students learned to respond to novel instructions. Suggestions for using flexible self-management programs, in which training components are established as effective for individual participants, are discussed.

This paper discusses issues related to concepts of preferences and choice making among persons with severe disabilities. Included are suggestions for acknowledging preferences, teaching choice as a decision-making process, and the broader implications of choice making among persons with severe handicaps as an expression of personal autonomy and dignity. Directions for future research are discussed.