Success in competitive employment placement of a demonstration project serving 53 persons with developmental disabilities is associated with three factors: (1) training approach and methodology; (2) program management; and (3) trainee characteristics. (CL)

A program combining classroom and community training in bus-riding skills to developmentaly disabled adults featured slide presentations, role playing, and performance in the natural environment. Test trials showed that all Ss learned necessary bus-riding skills and maintained their performance throughout the follow-up period of at least one year.…

The Denver Developmental Screening Tests (DDST) was administered to 25 Southeast Asian children (one to five years old) and scores of 150 other DDSTs performed on Southeast Asian children were reviewed. Findings suggested that scores may reflect differences in social and cultural experiences between these children and the standardization sample.…

Interviews with 24 families of deinstitutionalized developmentally disabled children revealed that 83 percent expressed high-level need for care and 67 percent were coping at a low level. Inner-city families most often expressed high-intensity needs and decreased coping ability, as did families of patients of younger age groups. (CL)

Data about the availability, accessibility, and organization of Information and Referral services from 133 public and private service providers for people with developmental disabilities showed that Information and Referral was a widely available service although there were problems in service provisions incuding lack of awareness about services…

Planning a monthly social event for developmentally disabled adults is described in terms of such concerns as facilities/insurance, transportation, staffing/volunteer coordination, entertainment, rules and regulations, finances, toileting and incontinent participants, medical needs, refreshments, alternatives to dancing, and dance theme variation.…

Twelve preschoolers who had Down's Syndrome, hydrocephalus, or brain damage of unknown etiology and who functioned at early and late linguistic Stage I were asked to respond to commands in simple, complete adult forms and in incomplete, telegraphic child forms. Late Stage I Ss were superior in comprehension of all forms. (CL)

A behavior education program for teaching mothers to develop toy play in their developmentally delayed children was evaluated. After training, mothers displayed target skills and children showed increased rates of appropriate play. Mothers and infants were generally more responsive to each other's behavior and children self-initiated more…

The communicative interactions of 32 mildly delayed and normally developing preschoolers were recorded during free play in a mainstreamed program. Analyses of syntactic complexity, semantic diversity, functional aspects of speech, and the use of selected discourse devices indicated that mildly delayed children adjusted important characteristics of…

Variables affecting placement requests by 251 families for their developmentally disabled members were examined. Results reaffirmed the importance of degree of disability, behavior problems, and external stressors for the decision-making process but also demonstrated that previous assumptions concerning their relative importance should be…

The cloze procedure, an inductive teaching approach taking advantage of available cues within children's storybooks, is advocated for use with developmentally delayed students. Visual, auditory, and sequential and semantic cues may be offered as prompts. (CL)

The authors describe behavior modification treatment procedures applied by direct-care staff in a residential school to conrol severe aggression and self-injury in two developmentally disabled, visually handicapped students. Techniques included positive practice overcorrection, verbal command, and response immobilization. (Author/CL)

The recalcitrant spitting of a blind, deaf, and retarded adolescent was eliminated with a behavioral intervention consisting of positive reinforcement for not spitting and facial screening for spitting. The social and academic implications of modifying such behaviors are discussed. (Author/CMG)

A model in which autistic and other developmentally disabled persons are provided individualized treatment within a home-like residence has been shown to provide successful transitions from institutions to community settings. (CL)

This paper reviews the literature on autism in general and examines in some detail the research on the Lovaas method of early intervention. The general review is divided into subsections which cover the following topics: historical perspectives, definition of autism, causes of autism, characteristics of people with autism, diagnostic criteria,…