Pam Shanks describes Raintree Montessori School, an exemplary inclusion school, and gives credit to the legacy of Dr. Montessori. An inclusive Montessori community begins with "physical integration of all children, progresses to functional inclusion, and finally culminates in the highest level, social inclusion." Each of these levels is…

United Cerebral Palsy of Maryland, Montgomery College, and Charles County Community College provided a federally funded paraprofessional training project on working effectively with handicapped children. The cooperative training program consisted of academic coursework (including two required courses: "Handicapped Citizens: Human Services and…

Visits to 10 schools and residential centers in eight countries were made to investigate international applications of ecological models in the psychoeducational treatment of behavior disordered children. The ecological approach differs from other approaches because it views the problem as a disturbance in the relationship and reciprocity between…

The paper makes two premises: (1) excellence in mainstreaming requires modifications to regular classroom instructional activities, materials, and assessment, and support and assistance for the teachers making these modifications; (2) one criterion to judge the excellence of evaluation of mainstreaming programs is the degree to which an evaluation…

Problems in and guidelines for developing an early identification/intervention program for handicapped students are discussed. The author cautions that appropriate education should first be based upon the child's learning process, and that ongoing review should replace single stage identification procedures. Problems are listed for consideration…

The role of surrogate parents in advocating for handicapped children whose parents or guardians are unknown or unavailable, or children who are wards of the state is discussed and a surrogate parent training program in South Dakota is described. The program provides 20 hours of instruction including lecture and large group discussion, small group…

The Lekotek, a toylending library program for mentally retarded children which started in Sweden, has expanded to serve families with disabled children in Evanston, Illinois. The Lekotek procedure involves a parental interview to determine the child's needs and family visits in which a Lekotek leader has a one-hour session with the child and then…

Government documents, brochures and annual reports of private agencies, and a taped narrative were reviewed to examine the educational and training needs of handicapped children and adults in India. The investigation centered around five questions: Who are the handicapped and how are they defined? What methods are used to identify them and assess…

A brief history of the toy library movement is offered. Programs for both handicapped and nonhandicapped children in 15 countries are described and the effectiveness of such programs is considered. Two types of toy library programs are defined--the Scandinavian model, or lekotek (designed exclusively for handicapped children and their families and…

This paper discusses the implementation of pragmatic-oriented communication therapy at the Carl Sandburg Elementary Learning Center, a self-contained special education school. The pragmatic orientation emphasizes teaching of the communication process. It is proposed that by teaching an organization of discourse, students become more involved with,…

The parent of a handicapped child reviews the development of parent groups and parent advocacy internationally. Among the programs described are weekend education courses for parents in Norway, deinstitutionalization efforts in England, mass media approaches in France, and the Extend-a-Family program in Canada in which a handicapped child is…

The paper reports on the Third International Conference of The European Association for Special Education held in Helsinki, Finland in 1980 to promote educational services for handicapped children and youth. Representatives from 29 countries in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America attended. The theme of the conference…

The paper describes the New Jersey Child Find project, a program to locate and identify all unserved handicapped children between the ages of 0 and 21 years. Noted are four project objectives (such as conducting community awareness campaigns), background of the project (including early efforts to identify handicapped children as a result of a…

The paper describes the practicum requirements of the Special Education Teacher Preparation program at California State University at Northridge, and it notes problem areas in the roles of the principal, cooperating teacher, and the university professor. Field work requirements involving observation, participation, and student teaching at both the…

The Exercises to Encourage Development (EXTEND) Program for developmentally delayed students is described and evaluation results presented. Designed to provide attention to the child with developmental lags in the areas of motor skills, perceptual sensations, or expressive-receptive language, the program attempts to prevent potential academic…