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Normalization and deinstitutionalization trends indicate that retarded adults are going to be returning to or staying in their local communities. The current emphasis on accountability suggests that the educational, recreational, and vocational programs designed to meet the needs of retarded adults must comply with legal, social, and ethical requirements. One such requirement is informed consent. In this paper, a legal analysis of informed consent is presented, and implications of this analysis for retarded adults in community settings are outlined.

The impact of TASH over the next decade will be affected by decisions about the precision and consistency of the organization's messages to the field. TASH has long been the premier organization extending the voice of individuals with significant developmental disabilities. As TASH examines the themes that will be prominent in the coming years, we advocate a consistent focus on (a) qualify of life and (b) evidence-based practices.

Staff members of community-based residential programs serving individuals with intellectual disabilities often have difficulty helping participants develop social relationships with community members. A "social guide model" taught staff of an apartment-based residential program to use a set of "community network strategies" to improve the social relationships of three women with disabilities. Results demonstrated a functional relationship between staff members' use of the strategies under the supervision of the social guide model and increases in the size of participants' social networks and the frequency with which they experienced social integration. The intervention also was associated with a higher weekly rate of introduction of new network members and a higher rate of socially integrated activities per network member per week. Gains generally were maintained during a follow-up period, with a regular staff member assuming the role of social guide.

The likelihood that learned skills will be maintained in natural performance settings may be affected by the number of opportunities to perform the skills following acquisition. To examine this hypothesis, 17 high school students with moderate to severe mental retardation were selected from three public school classrooms. Each student had learned one adaptive skill that he or she had performed at least twice per month without additional training for 5 months prior to this study (high opportunity). Each student had also learned one adaptive skill that he or she had not performed more often than once per month over the 5 months immediately preceding the study (low opportunity). Performance of both behaviors was probed under conditions as similar as possible to those experienced during training. Twelve of the 17 high opportunity skills were performed successfully while only 4 of the 17 low opportunity skills were completed. A sign test indicated these differences to be statistically significant. Implications of the results for selection of IEP goals and the inclusion of "opportunity" objectives are discussed.

Social life can be diminished by barriers inadvertently associated with "support." Social barriers were identified for three adults with severe intellectual disabilities. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to examine the effects of removing these barriers on the social life of each participant. The dependent variables in the study were (a) the number of social activities done per week, (b) the number of different people with whom social activities were done each week, and (c) the stability of social relationships across time as indexed by the number of different weeks in which activities occurred with a companion across the 27 weeks of the study. The independent variable was a seven-component "barrier reduction" package. Support staff were taught to use each component of the package, and pre-post measurement of package use was obtained. Results indicate that the staff successfully implemented the barrier reduction package, and that implementation was associated with change in the social life of each participant. The study raises implications for (a) assessing structural barriers, (b) modifying structural barriers, and (c) measurement of "social stability" as an important index of social life for future research.

This case study describes 30 months in the life of a young woman with a history of life-threatening self-injurious behaviors (SIB) who moved from a large public institution to her community. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed to provide a nonexperimental description of her behavior and lifestyle in the community. Quantitative measurements included: (a) activity patterns, (b) social network, (c) self-injurious behaviors, (d) aggression against others, and (e) staff changes. Qualitative results emerged from semistructured interviews and participant observations conducted over a 6-month period. Together, these data revealed a young woman actively involved in a lifestyle characterized by an increase in the frequency and diversity of activities performed in the community. Problem behaviors occurred at low levels for extended periods, yet there continued to be times with major regression. Qualitative results also indicate a general reduction in the intensity of self-injurious behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of multicomponent positive interventions, the need to design environments that promote lifestyle changes, and the value of collaboratively employing quantitative and qualitative research methods.