In two studies, three clinicians were assisted in using an outcome management approach to supervision for improving the work performance of their staff assistants. Using vocal and written instructions, feedback, and modeling, each clinician was assisted in specifying an area of staff performance (or consumer activity related to staff performance)…

Students with developmental disabilities often rely on prelinguistic behavior (e.g., reaching, leading) to communicate. When listeners fail to attend to prelinguistic behaviors, students may benefit from responding with an alternative form of communication to repair the breakdown. In the present study, we taught two students with developmental…

While the literature on the assessment, treatment and management of non-learning disabled sexual offenders is well established, it is only in recent years that researchers and clinicians have focused on sexual offenders with learning disabilities. In contrast to mainstream sex offender treatment programmes, there are few evaluated community-based…

Documentation of positive outcomes for severely handicapped learners as a function of their educational programs is receiving increased attention as the major focus of program development, monitoring, and evaluation efforts. At the same time, those strategies that have been used predominantly to determine program effectiveness--particularly…

Background: The No Child Left Behind Act legislation requires both higher standards and higher success rates at the same time. Failure of students to learn to read adequately as shown by national and state test results and the need for continued school success had prompted education officials to implement two reading programs--Voyager Universal…

We reviewed eight studies that described learning differences between students with learning disabilities (LD) and students with mild mental retardation (MMR). A total of 639 students, 6-20 years old, participated in these studies. Study authors examined students' inductive reasoning and their performance during guided inquiry and more lengthy…

This article describes part of the findings of a study requested by the (then) Teacher Training Agency (TTA) into the factors that support high quality initial teacher training (ITT) provision in England. The study had two chief aims. The first was to characterise successful trainees in terms of data already known about them using a dataset of all…

Staff at a day program were trained in Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) strategies and techniques. The goal was to provide training that would allow staff at the centre to use communication strategies when working with their clients. Two training sessions were provided on AAC and communication strategies for all staff at the centre.…

Although transition outcomes for youth with disabilities have shown some improvement and transition support practices have been identified, many young people continue to face transition barriers that preclude their full participation in key adult life activities. While research efforts have largely been professionally driven, there is emerging…

The Early Childhood Technology Integrated Instructional System 3 (EC-TIIS 3), housed in the Center for Best Practices in Early Childhood (the Center) within the College of Education and Human Services at Western Illinois University (WIU), was funded in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) as a…

College personnel are required to provide accommodations for students who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HoH), but few empirical studies have been conducted on D/HoH students as they learn under the various accommodation conditions (sign language interpreting, SLI, real-time captioning, RTC, and both). Guided by the experiences of students who…

This study examined the effectiveness of a Question Exploration Routine and associated graphic organizer for enhancing the performance of students of diverse abilities when assessed on knowledge and comprehension of content and quality of written responses. Participants were 36 students with and without learning disabilities (LD) in Grades 9…

An overview is provided of a 5-year project conducted by the Early Intervention Research Institute (EIRI) which focused on the effects and costs of early intervention for young handicapped children. The bulk of the document consists of research reports of 14 investigations: (1) meta-analysis of the early intervention efficacy literature; (2)…

The practicum developed and implemented an inservice teacher education program to improve services to exceptional children in group settings based on a newly developed resource manual, two workshop series, and observation/evaluation of teachers in their classes on a bimonthly basis over a period of 8 months. Eighty-nine preschool teachers…

Learning disabled students in a 2 year community college received specialized instruction and practice in reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, and study skills. Pre- and posttest scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, the Wide Range Achievement Test, and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test revealed significant increases…