Ten multihandicapped high-school students in the Dayton (Ohio) Public Schools were trained using a curriculum of independent community social skills, focusing specifically on restaurant skills, travel skills, shopping skills, self-care skills, and skills for visiting a business or government agency. The students made weekly trips into the…

Four types of adaptations facilitate the age appropriate acquisition of recreational skills in severely handicapped persons: material, procedural/rule, skill sequence, and facility adaptations. A case study illustrates systematic instruction, programmatic adaptations, and materials modification, to teach a photography skill to a multiply…

Visual accents can create unique communication graphics to increase attending behavior necessary for learning symbol/referent relationships by students with severe vision loss. Accenting procedures use size, color, contrast, shape, and graphic pattern to enhance the probability that the learner will self-initiate attending to the visual symbol.…

This article offers a set of principles, procedures, and special considerations for teaching students who are deaf-blind with cognitive disabilities to make their own choices during mealtimes. The article shows how a typical daily activity can be used to teach choice making and how this skill can be increased in complexity as the student…

A system of graduated guidance was used to teach three children (ages six through nine) with severe multiple disabilities to don and remove their jackets and coats independently. The training approach involved initial use of oversized garments, fading of guidance, and individualized reinforcement. Skill maintenance and generalization were also…

Comparison of residential rehabilitation outcomes of blind clients with (n=45) or without (n=67) previous psychiatric diagnosis found no intergroup differences after rehabilitation in skill, attitude, and overall adjustment. All clients improved significantly during rehabilitation. (DB)

A federally funded research report, titled "The Development of a Program in Orientation and Mobility for Multi-Handicapped Blind Infants" by Randall Harley et al., is briefly summarized in this one-page abstract. The report discusses the development of the "Peabody Mobility Kit for Infants," a package of assessment and training…

The article offers a contextual and functional approach to the development of visual skills in students with concomitant visual and multiple disabilities. A decision-making strategy is provided to aid the vision specialist in maximizing effective intervention. A case study illustrates the decision-making steps. (Author/DB)

A self-help skills instructional program used graduated guidance as a method of teaching independent dressing to an 11-year-old girl with profound mental retardation, seizure disorder, deafness, and blindness. Dressing skills improved with instruction and were maintained. Task analyses are presented for putting on socks, shorts, and shirts. (JDD)

The development of visual perception skills in children with partial vision as well as developmental disabilities is considered. A model of visual learning is offered which incorporates the role of visual experience, movement, and visual learning. Specific teaching suggestions for developing visual attention and visual search skills are offered.…

This book deals with the promotion of body awareness through use of educational gymnastics, with handicapped or non-handicapped but poorly coordinated children of all age levels. The method provides an analytical approach to movement, encourages children to listen to language, and assists them in creating their own activities. The activities and…

Four mentally retarded children (ages 4-11), 3 with autism, were successfully taught various adaptive behaviors for self-care skills. Training procedures involved the whole-task method and included modeling, verbal instructions, prompting, and edible and social reinforcement. (Author/JDD)

The purpose of this manual, the culmination of a graduate project begun at the University of Kansas, is to assist individuals with severe, multiple disabilities and their service providers in learning to utilize nonsymbolic behaviors in an expanded, facilitative manner that leads to more consistent and predictable communication functioning. The…

This final report discusses the activities of the Mississippi Early Education Program for Children with Multiple Disabilities, a program designed to train Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part H service coordinators and service providers to use family centered strategies. Two levels of training activities were implemented. The first…

This resource guide assists teachers in offering optimum educational opportunities to visually impaired students. Introductory material describes the range of visual impairments and the cooperative process recommended for the planning and implementation of students' education programs. Answers are provided to some common concerns of teachers with…