This practicum examined ways to improve treatment of hard-to-serve youths at a non-profit residential mental health center. Youthworkers at the center displayed a low rate of individual treatment plan strategy implementation and lacked skills and knowledge in outcome-oriented individualized treatment planning. Recommendations for improving the…

This practicum sought to develop a video-based orientation program for a day care center. A one-time orientation meeting was not feasible for this community college-based center, due to flexible scheduling, staggered starting dates of new staff, and a diverse staff. An increase in staff size, space, and enrollment intensified the already difficult…

A prereferral intervention program was instituted: to ensure that children within a Head Start program who had special needs were identified and referred in a timely manner; to prevent the mistaken referral or labeling of children with mild delays who did not require intervention; and to increase the effectiveness of the existing referral system.…

For a school year, a language arts software program was used to help special needs children in Marblehead, Massachusetts who represented a range of learning disabilities and emotional, behavioral and physical disorders of varying degrees of severity. The program had three major components, entitled "Nouns,""Verbs," and "Adjectives." These…

This practicum was designed to improve the delivery of special education services to all students with special needs in a rural Canadian school district. The goal was for teachers, as members of program planning teams, to design and implement individual program plans for exceptional students according to district special education policy…

During an 8-month practicum, 41 mildly disabled high school students; their teachers, parents, and counselors; and community business representatives cooperated in defining individual school-to-work transition goals in educational, occupational/career, and social/personal areas. The major aim was to realistically and adequately prepare these…

This practicum study was designed to improve the communication and social skills of 43 students (ages 14-22) with developmental disabilities by involving families in at-home treatment activities that reinforced and enhanced in-school and community-based speech/language therapy and by increasing attendance of parents at school meetings and…

The practicum report describes inservice training to increase mainstream elementary teachers' (N=15) awareness of the ramifications of having an emotionally handicapped child in the regular classroom through increased knowledge of the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) and its guidelines and procedures. The inservice program was developed and…

This practicum focused on preventing referral to special education by meeting the needs of kindergarten and first grade children identified with behavioral or academic problems in the mainstream classroom. The practicum emphasized: (1) early identification of potentially dysfunctional children; (2) development of individual education plans…

This practicum, which sought to improve parents' involvement in the development of educational goals for their children with disabilities, had three objectives: improved attendance by parents at Individual Education Plan (IEP) conferences, increased parent participation in the decision-making process during IEP development, and enhanced parent…

This practicum was designed to improve development of individualized education plans (IEPs) of mainstreamed students with disabilities in one junior high school, through applied strategies to increase the active involvement of regular classroom teachers, parents, and students in the decision-making process and IEP development. Interventions with…

This practicum project sought to improve the care of students with cognitive dysfunction through more effective interdisciplinary collaboration of mental health and education professionals. The project's objectives included increasing child psychiatric residents' knowledge of educational programs, and having consultation reports indicate inclusion…