The handbook describes a method of teaching communication skills to students with severe disabilities (severely and profoundly retarded, trainable mentally retarded, autistic, deaf blind, and severely multihandicapped). In the interrupted behavior chain procedure, a routinized activity in a natural setting is interrupted and the child is taught to…

This book describes a training technique in which an art activity called a touchstone exercise serves as the basis of an action-oriented leadership development program. Part 1 describes the context in which the touchstone exercise was developed and details the process of setting the stage for and conducting it. Two case studies illustrating the…

The article describes the use of interrupted behavior chains to teach communication skills in natural settings with autistic students. Empirical and theoretical bases for the training strategy are explained as are specific procedures for implementing the strategy. Implications of the strategy for classroom organization and service delivery are…

This book offers guidance on teaching behavior to children with behavior problems, based on the premise that a small percentage of children need one-to-one modeling and rehearsal to enable them to "recover" the behaviors that those in the typical range have established already. The behavior recovery program emphasizes the whole-school nature of…

The National Adult Basic Education (ABE) Development Consortium developed a set of staff development principles and techniques from staff training literature and surveyed professional ABE staff developers regarding their appropriateness. Of 65 surveys distributed at a Florida conference and mailed to other interested practitioners, 35 were…

This manual is intended as a handbook for reading teachers and others who are serving as presenters in workshops designed to help classroom teachers solve student reading-related problems. Following a depiction of the Independent Classroom Problem-Solving Model, the basis of the workshops, the manual outlines each step of the model by giving…

This guide shows how principles of functional assessment can be applied to behavior problems of students with mental retardation to identify the behavior's purposes and plan for more effective intervention in classrooms, supported living settings, and work settings. It shows how to conduct a functional assessment and link assessment results to…

This guide, which is profusely illustrated with line drawings and diagrams, is intended to help teachers and trainers understand what different types of visual aids are available and how to make and use them effectively. Discussed in the introduction are general principles of training, teaching, communication, and methods. Covered next are general…

This paper is intended to help supervisors, trainers, and teachers involved in Great Britain's Youth Training Scheme (YTS) understand the principles of participative learning and use them in teaching core skills to YTS trainees. Participative learning is discussed in terms of its emphasis on individual activity in learning and recognition of the…

This pamphlet reviews the historical process involved in initially recognizing Rett Syndrome as a specific disorder in girls. Its etiology is unknown, but studies have considered factors as hyperammonemia, a two-step mutation, a fragile X chromosome, metabolic disorder, environmental causation, dopamine deficiency, and an inactive X chromosome.…

This report contains a complete record of the methodology and instrumentation of the Junior High Classroom Organization Study. The purpose of the study was to delineate specific effective teacher behaviors. Included in this report are a description of the selection and training of observers, and guidelines for writing narrative descriptions,…

Paraprofessionals in education have become specialists, who are more accurately described as paraeducators. Paraeducators work alongside their professional colleagues and participate in the delivery of instruction and related services. This pamphlet provides information about strategies that can improve the deployment, supervision, and training of…

This guide is intended to assist practitioners involved in facilitating action learning (AL). Examined in Part 1 are the following topics: principles of AL (distinctive features of AL, purpose of AL sets, life span of AL sets, values underpinning AL); independent versus organization-sponsored AL sets; AL set operation (time, tone setting, set…

Intended as a reference for preventing harassment and discrimination in Ontario colleges and universities, this resource guide describes a project to develop models of alternative instructional delivery and presents the models. Part 1 provides an introduction to the guide, reviews the goals of the project, and describes a related training video…

The goal of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Educational Research and Dissemination Program was to establish a model for disseminating, to classroom teachers, research findings on classroom management and teacher effectiveness. This manual was designed for training local AFT union members: (1) to use the manual in their own teaching…