Intended for teachers of severely and profoundly retarded children, the text presents guidelines for designing individualized programs for these children and specific teaching techniques which the authors have found successful with children having a mental age of from 0 to 36 months. An introduction defines severely and profoundly retarded and lists characteristics of the population. Covered in the section on the systems approach are definitions of program areas, initial preparation for programming and scheduling (including descriptions of equipment needed), components of the educational program, and home follow-up. The specific teaching techniques are presented in several sections covering such areas as body image, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, visual skill development, auditory training, activities of daily living, communication skills, and personal-social skills. Each specific task is covered on a separate page and includes general objective, task, materials, procedures, rationale, and adaptations. A special "card system" for tracking individualized program objectives and tasks is explained. (IM)