The Early Referral and Follow-up Project of the University of Nebraska Medical Center was designed to facilitate developmental assessment and intervention with long-term or repeatedly hospitalized children from birth to 3 years of age. Developmentally delayed children, handicapped children, and children at risk for delays were eligible for…

A longitudinal study was designed to develop and evaluate a screening instrument of developmental delay based on parental assessment of 18-month-old children. The reliability and validity of a parental screening instrument based on the Griffiths Mental Developmental Scale was investigated with a sample of 2,783 Swedish children out of a population…

The paper describes an approach for identifying intervention strategies, techniques, procedures, and activities designed to enhance the developmental competencies of handicapped, mentally retarded, developmentally disabled, and at risk children (birth to 4 years of age). Curriculum procedures are classified according to domains of intervention and…

Intended as a guide for professionals and local administrators in initiating and developing early intervention programs for handicapped children, the volume provides descriptions of 10 models and techniques presently utilized in Pennsylvania. Included are reports with the following titles and authors: "A System of Open Learning" (P.…

The third and final volume of the Life Skills for the Developmentally Disabled Project is a manual for assessing and training institutionalized clients for deinstitutionalization and community living. Charts for goal setting and objective plans with information on materials, setting, instructional plans, procedures, evaluation and followup methods…

Compared longitudinally were effects of biological risk and social influences on the physical, psychomotoric, cognitive-linguistic, disability, adjustment, and academic domains of 1,008 children at eight stages between 3 and 6 1/2 years of age. Over 20 tests such as physical measurements and the Preschool Attainment Record (PAR) were used. Some of…

Life Online is an online program in Victoria, Australia designed for young adults with mild intellectual disabilities. The program appeals to both teachers and students through content that is relevant to the everyday lives of this client group; real life characters to whom students can relate; activities that are achievable but need teaching and…

This report from the ongoing National Residential Information Systems Project provides statistics on persons with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities (MR/DD) receiving residential services in the United States for the year ending June 30, 1996, as well as comparative statistics from earlier years. Section 1 contains chapters…

This study examines the effects of in-service education on caring for preschool children with disabilities. Caregiving behaviors and self-perceptions of caregivers who did or did not receive training were evaluated. A 2-year, pretest/posttest, experimental-control group design was used to compare the effects of live and videotaped training…

This final report reviews the second phase of a life-span study of boys with fragile X syndrome (FSX), the most common known inherited cause of mental retardation. Males with the syndrome are more severely affected than females and in males, delays are usually evident in all the developmental domains, although cognitive and communication skills…

Interviews with mothers of preschool age children with established disabilities (n=230) and those classified as at-risk (n=32) were conducted, focusing on issues of children's peer relations and friendships. Mothers of children in both integrated and specialized settings perceived their respective settings as facilitating social development. Both…

Evaluation of integrated versus segregated schooling of 91 children with severe developmental disabilities found that integrated children spent less time with therapists, equal time with special education teachers, more time with other children, and less time alone. No differences were found on developmental skills; however, integrated children…

Interviews with 76 working adults with developmental disabilities suggested that full-time employment did little to improve their quality of life. Interviews covered subjects' physical and material well-being, relations with others, personal development and fulfillment, social activities, community and civic activities, and productivity. Issues of…

Within 6 weeks of infants' entry into an early intervention program and again 12 months later, data on infant and family adaptation were collected in home visits to families with infants with disabilities. Found that the strongest predictor of infants' developmental change was the severity of infants' psychomotor impairment. (BC)

Reviews past and present research on early communication and language intervention at the Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, presenting three premises that inform most of the Kennedy Center's research on the issue, summarizing seven lines of contemporary research by Kennedy Center investigators that influence the development of…