Young Handicapped Children Research Articles

Profile: parents help themselves.

A short account is given of a voluntary organization, PACE, formed by parents of young handicapped children in Leeds. PACE provides friendship and help to other parents, arranges the toy library, riding for the disabled and other activities for the children. It also raises money that is needed for special projects.

The challenge of providing psychological services for young handicapped children.

The challenge of providing psychological services for young handicapped children.

The challenge of providing psychological services for young handicapped children.

The challenge of providing psychological services for young handicapped children.

Early Detection Programs for Preschool Han Dicapped Children : Some Procedural Recommendations

A review of surveillance programs for infants and young handicapped children conducted by physicians is presented. Significant implications for early identification programs for preschool children are: (a) Screening systems should include multiple sources of data upon which decisions are made about children; (b) conceptually, screening should include procedures that assess the ongoing transaction between the child and the care-givers in his/her environment; and (c) surveillance should be conducted serially over time rather than employ a binary outcome procedure.

Community Interaction Early Education Project (CIEEP): A Model for the Identification and Diagnosis of Young Handicapped Children

An assessment model is presented that provides a framework for the evaluation of young handicapped children and their families. The theorical of young handicapped children and their families. The theoretical base of interactionism and role modeling along with the application of the diagnostic prescriptive method provide the basis for the approach. The system utilizes an interdisciplinary team approach that includes the parent, teacher, educational specialist, audiologist, child development specialist, developmental pediatrician, psychologist, social worker, and a speech and language consultant. The goal of the CIEEP model is to provide evaluation of previously under-served preschool handicapped children.

Project early: A program at Oakland University to retrain teachers to work with young handicapped children

Mandatory education and mainstreaming of handicapped children creates demands and opportunities for teachers and schools. Project Early is a special graduate program at Oakland University designed to retrain teachers to work with young handicapped children.

Parent involvement and the development of children with special needs

The involvement of parents in the education and training of handicapped children and young people is a relatively recent phenomenon. Only gradually have professionals in the educational, medical and social work spheres accepted the undoubted potential that parents have for positive involvement in activities designed to optimise a child's development, and the expertise, based on intimate knowledge, which they can bring to bear. This paper examines the ways in which parents may be helped and supported in the task of providing stimulating environments for handicapped young children and in the development of their skills as therapists and educators. Parents have a special relationship with the child and are well placed to help him. They require support however in coming to terms with the handicap, in appreciating the implications for the child and for the family in the long term, and in developing appropriate skills. Help for the handicapped child must therefore be considered in the light of help for the fami...

Observing and Recording Young Handicapped Children's Behavior: A Comparison among Observational Methodologies

Observing and Recording Young Handicapped Children's Behavior: A Comparison among Observational Methodologies

A Study of the Application of Blissymbolics as a means of Communication for a young brain damaged Adult

IntroductionBlissymbolics was originated by Charles K. Bliss as an international means of communication and explained in his text “Semantography - Blissymbolics” (1965). The Ontario Crippled Children's Centre in 1971 adopted this system for use by the young handicapped child and it has been introduced successfully to many physically handicapped children with severe communication difficulties. A minimal movement by the symbol user can be utilised for selecting symbols from a board.NotesWithin six months of the introduction of Blissymbols L suffered a debilitating illness, which curtailed the programme. At the present time - a year later - L is beginning to communicate again and, in spite of this lapse of time and the physical deterioration, she has retained a functional knowledge of Blissymbols.

Handicapped University Students' Views of Educational Programs as Compared With Those of Majors and Nonmajors

The present study solicited opinions of and experiences in the public school system from handicapped students who had successfully matriculated into a university program. Their opinions and experiences were found to differ significantly from those of special education majors and nonmajors, the latter group having had no training in special education. Furthermore, the two groups of nonhandicapped students (special education undergraduate majors and undergraduate nonmajors) were unable to predict the opinions and experiences of the handicapped students, and the special education majors were no more successful at doing this than the nonmajors. In particular, the nonhandicapped students consistently overestimated the limitations and perceptions of special needs of the handicapped students by continually viewing them as more disabled than the handicapped students viewed themselves. When asked to rank the value of various aspects of educational programming for young handicapped children, the nonhandicapped students emphasized the development of a special curriculum for handicapped children to accentuate strengths, while the handicapped students rated assessment procedures and training of public school teachers as their highest priorities. The results of the investigation suggest that handicapped students are different from their nonhandicapped counterparts in terms of their opinions and experiences and that their views should be carefully considered by those working in educational programs for handicapped populations.

Young Handicapped Children Can be Gifted and Talented

Over the last 10 years programs for young handicapped children have emerged in large numbers across the country. There has been concern, however, that there are gifted/talented in these programs who are underserved. The project reported here is funded by the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped. The project known as RAPYHT (Retrieval and Acceleration of Promising Young Handicapped and Talented) was charged in the development/demonstration stage with developing procedures for identifying and appropriately programming for these children. These procedures and procedures for providing technical services in the outreach stage of the project are delineated.

ANALYSING PARENT‐CHILD INTERACTIONS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROCEDURE AND METHOD OF REPORTING

Research in child developmental psychology is concerning itself increasingly with the fine-grain study of infant-caregiver interactions and as a result awareness of the importance of early interaction patterns in the development of children has grown very rapidly. The research has been based on an observational approach made possible by the use of video-recording and the development of sophisticated methods of interaction analysis. The methods employed and the research findings have important implications for those working clinically with young handicapped children and their parents, but as yet the research methods have been too complex and time-consuming to be used directly in practice. This paper describes the development of a procedure which can be used to observe and analyse the interactions of pre-school handicapped children with their caregivers in a clinical setting, using modifications of existing research methods and based on current findings. Examples of the coding procedure, transcript sheet and reporting methods are given in the context of a pilot application. It is suggested that the approach is valuable as a conceptual framework which the observer can use to improve his observational skills, provides a sound base for assessment and remediation work and can incorporate new research findings as they become available.

The young handicapped child in the community

Despite recent improvements in services for young handicapped children, families still find themselves without adequate information and support. Fundamental to family support is the planning of joint services and the development of the concept of family support. Assessment must be linked to ongoing programmes of management and the setting of long‐term goals. Parent/professional collaboration should ensure the more effective use of resources. Parents need encouragement and detailed support and guidance if they are to play a therapeutic role in caring for their child. They also need practical help, both financial and in the form of respite care. Since the family is the major caring agency for a handicapped child, it is essential that expertise and services are pooled in a more flexible and imaginative way. It is therefore essential that children who have a disability should enjoy positive discrimination from health, education and social services to maximise ability and to ensure that they can enjoy a meaningful life within the home and the community.

How Valid are Children's Language Tests?

Seven independent studies of young children's performances were reviewed. Rather consistently, children's scores on a wide range of popular language tests and measures revealed large numbers of moderately high to high interrelationships which were unexpected, since the authors frequently claimed that their tests measured specific rather than general language skills. Data from two new investigations of different batteries of language tests given to 122 young handicapped children in the first investigation and 44 in the second were subjected to multivariate analyses, including regression analysis and factor analysis. Results from the first study showed that a few general rather than many specific linguistic abilities characterized the performances of the children; results from the second showed that only one general linguistic factor accounted for the subjects' performances. The construct and content validity of many of the tests studied appears untenable. Implications for use of the tests (accounting for most of the variance in each of the two batteries studied) are presented, along with recommendations concerning the development of more valid language tests.

Book Reviews : Right from the Start: A Service for Families with a Young Handicapped Child. Edited by BERNIE SPAIN and GUY WIGLEY. National Society for Mentally Handi capped Children. Pp. 95. £1.75 paper

Book Reviews : Right from the Start: A Service for Families with a Young Handicapped Child. Edited by BERNIE SPAIN and GUY WIGLEY. National Society for Mentally Handi capped Children. Pp. 95. £1.75 paper

Pediatric residents and young handicapped children: curriculum evaluation.

The systematic evaluation of a curriculum designed to improve the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and clinical judgment of pediatric residents with regard to young handicapped children and their families is described. Residents were assigned to experimental and control groups, and changes were analyzed across several dimensions. The results revealed a number of significant changes due to the implementation of the curriculum. In particular, knowledge of various aspects of handicapping conditions increased as did the tendency to characterize the behavior of handicapped children in a positive manner. In addition, an experimental design is presented that is uniquely compatible with scheduling factors during residency training.

A Developmental Approach to Educating the Disturbed Young Child

This paper presents an approach to working with emotionally disturbed and autistic young children which is based upon developmental constructs. The Developmental Therapy curriculum is described and evidence of progress is presented for 106 handicapped preschool children receiving Developmental Therapy. The Developmental Therapy curriculum includes a sequence of 146 developmental milestones which are clustered into stages reflecting social and emotional growth in children from approximately age two to twelve years. Within each stage of Developmental Therapy four curriculum areas are defined: Behavior, Communication, Socialization, and (Pre) Academics. They are derived from four processes of adjustment: doing, saying, caring, and thinking. By incorporating these processes into the four curriculum areas and by sequencing them into major emotional milestones, long range goals and short term objectives for social-emotional growth are established and incorporated into a child's individualized education program (IBP). To explore the hierarchical validity of the Developmental Therapy Objectives Rating Form (DTORF), the primary instrument used in Developmental Therapy to measure emotional growth, 87 children were evaluated over a nine month period. An analysis of the data indicated the a priori orderings of the objectives in each area were very close to those yielded by statistical analysis of the DTORF ratings of the subjects. In a preliminary study of agreement between raters using the DTORF an overall 68 percent agreement was obtained. Subsequently, in four separate locations, DTORF data were collected on a total of 106 severely emotionally disturbed, autistic, or mixed handicapped young children. The results in one school year indicate progress in each area of Developmental Therapy and reflect a hierarchical integration across stages.

Early Intervention for Young Severely and Profoundly Handicapped Children: The Preschool Imperative

This article examines the need for early intervention with severely and profoundly handicapped infants and young children. The importance of providing infant and preschool programs for these children is defended against the somewhat discouraging review of the literature on early intervention with poverty preschool children. It is pointed out that for early intervention to be effective with severely involved children, the program must include a variety of components. These include a developmental-behavioral approach, a strong parent partnership, an interdisciplinary collaboration, a view of the preschool as a respite facility, a focus on the special training and skills necessary for the teacher of infants and preschoolers, a knowledge of prosthetic and independence-promoting devices, and the inclusion of play activities. Emphasis throughout is on a tripartite endeavor: parents, teachers, and clinicians working together, learning from each other, but learning also from the child, who must be the major determinant of whether a program is worthwhile or not. The preschool setting and the preschool staff are the pivotal elements in successful intervention.

Developing Individualized Education Programs for Young Handicapped Children

Developing Individualized Education Programs for Young Handicapped Children

The Exeter home-visiting project: the psychologist as one of several therapists.

Summary Ten years ago Honeylands in Exeter was the chronic care children's ward of a district general hospital. The consultant and matron regulated the use of Honeylands for residential relief by handicapped children, a development suggested by a parent. Two hundred children now receive residential relief whenever requested by parents. All types of handicap are represented — social, environmental, physical and mental. Playgroup began with five children in 1970. There are now four levels of playgroup, and 60 children participating. Individual therapeutic work, originating with physiotherapy in the late 60's, now extends to several therapeutic disciplines and includes nursery nurses under the direction of psychologists. New cases are identified as early as possible, and a multidisciplinary team including all disciplines and some volunteers each takes individual responsibility for new children and their families. The home therapist is selected according to the special needs of the particular child. Developmental work at home in the family thus precedes the introduction to Honeylands. A detailed description is made of the home visiting project from the viewpoint of the developmental psychologist. Awareness of the global impact of handicap on families, and some limitations of expectations for developmental therapy in very young handicapped children, have become clear. The entire family unit must be comprehended and considered before developmental intervention can be effective.