Educable Mentally Retarded Children Research Articles

Effectiveness of Storytelling on the Components of Communication Skills in Educable Mentally-retarded Children

Effectiveness of Storytelling on the Components of Communication Skills in Educable Mentally-retarded Children

S.カークらの教科教育を中心とした精神遅滞児教育の研究 : 「教育可能な精神遅滞児」のカリキュラム構成原理を中心に

S.カークらの教科教育を中心とした精神遅滞児教育の研究 : 「教育可能な精神遅滞児」のカリキュラム構成原理を中心に

Evaluation of the self-concept of mothers with educable mentally retarded (EMR) children

Background and Purpose: Birth of a mentally retarded child is a significant challenge in every family and is associated with the possibility of parental stress and depression. This study aimed to evaluate the self-concept of mothers with educable mentally retarded (EMR) children. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 40 mothers with EMR children in the only special primary school for these children in Aran & Bidgol city in Isfahan, Iran. Data were collected using self-concept questionnaires. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and Fisher’s exact test in SPSS V.13. Results: In this study, total score of the self-concept of mothers was 29.95±7.60, which was relatively desirable. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between the age of children (P=0.02) and family income status (P=0.01) with the scores of maternal selfconcept. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, higher family income and increased age of EMR children are associated with higher self-concept of mothers. It is recommended that future studies be performed on larger sample sizes in this regard.

Comprehension of “before” and “after” by normal and educable mentally retarded children

This study reports findings on appreciation of the “before” and “after” event sequence with normal and educable mentally retarded (EMR) children matched on verbal mental ability (MA). Before and after constructions were associated with three variables at a time: semantics (logical vs. arbitrary event sequence), syntax (complex when conjunction preposed vs. simple when conjunction embedded), and an order of mention strategy (coinciding with the event occurence or reversing the event occurence). The data show that normal children perform significantly better than EMR children and suggest that the linguistic performance of EMR children cannot be best predicted on the basis of MA. Before is better understood than after, in general, by both groups, but a number of interactions between syntax, semantics, and an order of mention strategy suggests that differences in performances between normal and EMR children are of a quantitative rather than a qualitative nature. Linguistic (PPVT IQ) and cognitive (WISC-Picture Arrangement) factors are, as MA, poor predictors of before and after comprehension by normal and EMR children.

Does categorical teacher certification benefit the mildly handicapped child?

The study reported here examined the utility of teacher certification as it relates to the reading achievement of mildly handicapped children. Specifically, this investigation analyzed the question of whether children identified as learning disabled (LD) and educable mentally retarded (EMR) make better academic progress when taught by teachers with certification specific to the student's disability. Results indicated that LD and EMR pupils, when taught by teachers with certification matching child label, did not make significantly greater gains than LD and EMR children instructed by teachers with licenses not matching pupil label. The data support a noncategorical service delivery model with implications for issues involving student identification and teacher training programs.

Adaptive Behavior: Concurrent Validity

The concurrent validity of adaptive behavior was investigated for educable mentally retarded (EMR) and slow learners (SL). Fifty-seven EMR (N = 36) and SL ( N = 21) children completed the Children's Adaptive Behavior Scale (CABS) while teachers and parents completed the Adaptive Behavior Scale-School Edition (ABS-SE) and the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children (ABIC). Moderate correlations were found between the ABIC and CABS when total mean scores were compared to the Comparison Score on ABS-SE. Part 1 of the ABS-SE tends to have higher and more consistent correlations (convergent validity) with the ABIC and CABS than does Part 2 of the ABS-SE (discriminant validity). The CABS and ABIG were found to be closely related. Implications of the findings in terms of assessment are discussed.

Verb usage by educable mentally retarded children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the semantic and morphological nature of verb usage by educable mentally retarded (EMR) children. Three groups of children were studied in structured and non-structured situations in which the verb system was the core interest. There were 15 mentally retarded younger children (8.6-9.6 years), 19 mentally retarded older children (10.0-12.6 years) and a control group of 17 normal children (5.0-6.0 years). Results showed that EMR children use fewer conjugations than normal children of similar or lower mental age, and thus they can express fewer verb-case relations. In particularly EMR children show limited use of process-verb relations. It was further found that EMR children are restricted in the morphological processing of verbs in past and future tenses.

Use of Clustering Techniques for Validation of Task Analysis Models

This paper describes the development of a coin-skills curriculum for educable mentally retarded (EMR) children via the application of cluster analysis. Special emphasis has been given to (a) 2 clustering techniques that were employed to verify clusters of coin skills, and (b) the sequence in which a group of 100 EMR children acquired selected coin skills. Results obtained from the cluster analysis are evaluated in the framework of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The implications of these empirical results are discussed.

Concurrent validity of the Woodcock-Johnson tests of cognitive ability with the WISC-R: EMR children

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJTCA) were administered in a counterbalanced order to 30 children referred for a three-year reevaluation. All children were currently placed in an educable mentally retarded (EMR) program. The children ranged in age from 8-0 to 12-5 years, with a mean of 10-6. The correlation coefficient between the WISC-R and WJTCA was observed to be .72. Significant mean differences were found between the WISC-R and WJTCA full scale standard scores. The implications of the findings are discussed relative to the placement of children in classes for the mentally retarded. Explanations for the mean differences between the WJTCA and WISC-R also are explored.

Sensitivity to orthographic structure in educable mentally retarded children

Thirty educable mentally retarded (EMR) children were presented an item selection task to assess their sensitivity to orthographic structure in printed English words. Analyses of performance indicated that EMR children do acquire implicit knowledge of orthographic rules and that this ability is related to the development of reading skills.

A self-instructional package for increasing attending behavior in educable mentally retarded children.

The purpose of this study was to develop a self-instructional package that would aid highly distractible children in increasing their attending behavior in a training and two generalization (a one-to-one and a classroom) situations. Three untrained subjects were monitored for general comparison and social validation purposes. One of these control subjects was distractible and the other two (criterion comparison) were evaluated as not having attentional problems. A multiple baseline design was employed in which training was sequentially introduced across subjects. During training, the experimental subjects were taught through self-instruction to focus their attention and to cope with two tasks, math and printing. After learning the self-instructions the subjects were systematically and sequentially exposed to photo-slides of distracting situations, to audio-distractors composed of noisy lunchroom verbal peer interactions, and to in vivo distractors provided by kindergarten children playing with wooden blocks in the training setting. The entire training procedure was handled in a game-like context to maintain subject interest and to facilitate generalization. The results suggested that the training package produced direct and generalized changes in self-instructional behavior. In addition, a decreae in off-task behavior occurred during math, printing, and also during a phonics program in the one-to-one and classroom situations. However, reliable changes in academic task performance were not observed. Finally, no systematic changes on any of the dependent measures occurred for the three untrained subjects.

A Cooperative University/Public School Approach to Sensitizing Majority Teachers to the Needs of Parents of Black EMR Children

In the field of Special Education, teachers have become increasingly aware of the need to individualize instruction to meet the needs of culturally different children with whom they work. This is the case for all teachers in Special Education, but the necessity to provide individualized instruction is even more apparent with teachers who work with large numbers of educable mentally retarded (EMR) children on a diagnostic basis. These teachers are expected to work intensively with the child, to diagnose his specific learning problems, and to design a program which will help remediate the child's difficulties. This type of diagnostic-prescriptive teaching requires (1) that considerable time be spent with each child, on a one-to-one basis, observing the characteristics of the child in various settings, and (2) a cooperative teacher-parent relationship. Resource teachers feel that their time is much too limited to per-

Children's fears: a developmental comparison of normal and exceptional children.

The fears of 133 boys and girls aged 7 to 19, classified as educable mentally retarded (EMR), trainable mentally retarded (TMR), and specific learning disabled (SLD), were ascertained through self-report data and compared with those of 106 normal children aged 6 to 12. Similar developmental trends were found in all groups, with younger children reporting more unrealistic fears than older children. When mental age was calculated for the EMR and TMR children, their developmental trends closely approximated those of the normal children. In general, exceptional children were found to have a much wider range and a greater number of fears than normal children. Most fears were found to be realistic, learned, and dependent upon the child's intellectural and maturational level.

The zone of potential development: implications for intelligence testing in the year 2000

The emphasis of this paper is the practice and interpretation of intelligence testing of educable retarded children. The current and future state of intelligence testing are in terms of three criteria: their predictive, diagnostic and remedial functions. In the first section we consider individual testing formats within a framework of Vygotsky's theory of potential development and the underlying assumptions of that theory concerning task analysis and transferring of training. In section two, we consider the social nature of the testing situation and the degree of contextual support provided for the learner. In the final section we consider Neisser's distinction between academic intelligence and everyday thinking with particular reference to the life adjustment of mildly retarded citizens

Hierarchical semantic organization in educable mentally retarded children

Fifty-four educable mentally retarded (EMR) children looked at eight familiar pictures. Subsequently they attempted to recall each picture when given as retrieval cues the corresponding noun and four other words that represented a hierarchical class inclusion system for that particular picture. Five predictions based on a model of semantic distance in the structure were tested. Four of the predictions were significantly confirmed. Thus, EMR children showed evidence of functional use of a hierarchical class inclusion system in memory retrieval. These results are not suggested by most of the relevant literature in mental retardation.

Cognitive tempo in educable mentally retarded children.

The present study investigated the relationship of time and errors on the Matching Familiar Figures test to the mental age of 40 Caucasian male, educable mentally retarded (EMR) children. The children, who ranged in age from six to 18 years, had intelligence test scores of less than 80, were exhibiting problems in adaptive behavior, and were all receiving special education services. An ANOVA revealed that with increasing mental age, elapsed time to first response increased and errors decreased, thus indicating a mental age developmental decrease in impulsivity. For all subjects, time was inversely related to errors. The data suggest that the development of cognitive tempo in EMR children parallels that of nonhandicapped children.

Stimulus generalization following extradimensional and intradimensional training in educable retarded children

Five related experiments investigating stimulus generalization following go/no-go discrimination training of educable retarded children are reported. Experiment 1 employed an Extradimensional paradigm in which generalization testing was on the hue dimension following training on an independent (orientation) dimension. Following True discrimination training only 25% of children showed a decremental stimulus generalization gradient on the hue dimension, though all children exhibited flat gradients in Pseudodiscrimination and S+ only control groups. An increase in difficulty of the orientation discrimination in Experiment 2 did not increase the number of decremental gradients. In Experiment 3, children who exhibited decremental gradients in Experiments 1 and 2 underwent further generalization testing with modified stimuli to establish a symmetrical gradient peaked at a hue S+ to be employed in Experiments 4 and 5. In these experiments an Intradimensional paradigm was employed with S+ and S− stimuli drawn from the hue dimension. Excitatory control by S+ and inhibitory control by S− were demonstrated, as were inhibitory consequences of S− such as peak and area shift.

Maintenance and generalization of trained metamnemonic awareness by educable retarded children

The majority of educable retarded children (young group, MA 6; old group, MA 8) required to estimate their memory span was found to be unrealistic estimators. Following training in span estimation the older subjects improved under both explicit and implicit feedback conditions, while younger children only benefited from explicit feedback. Three posttests of the effects of training revealed long-term (1-year) maintenance of training for older subjects but younger subjects showed post-test improvement only on an immediate test. While long-term maintenance was found for older subjects, generalization to similar span-estimation tests was not found. The utility of training metamnemonic knowledge which does not generalize was questioned and alternate training procedures were proposed.

Bioelectronic measurement of nasality in trainable mentally retarded children.

Fifty trainable mentally retarded children were evaluated with TONAR II, a bioelectronic instrument for detecting and quantitatively measuring voice parameters. Results indicated that one-half of the children tested were hypernasal. The strikingly high prevalence of excessive nasality was contrasted with results obtained from 64 nonretarded children and 50 educable retarded children tested with the same instrument. The study demonstrated the need of retarded persons for improved voice and resonance.

The feeling of knowing experience in educable retarded children.

Educable retarded children were required to predict their recognition accuracy when recall failed. Older children (Mental Age = 8 and 10) could predict reliably their recognition accuracy suggesting sensitivity to their own feeling of knowing experience but the younger subjects (Mental Age = 6) showed no evidence of this sensitivity. Even though the younger children had difficulty predicting their recognition accuracy in advance they were able to estimate the success or failure of their responses after they had occurred. The results are discussed in terms of the complexity of the metamemory judgment required and the advisability of evaluating metamemorial knowledge across several situations was emphasized.