Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities最新文献

Severely retarded boys entered this study already able to match colored patches to dictated color words and to name the colors orally. Initially they were unable to match printed color words with the colored patches or to their dictated names; neither could they name the printed words orally. Programs were designed to teach the boys to use individual anagram letters to construct the appropriate colors words when shown color patches. After learning the visual equivalences between colors and printed words, the boys demonstrated auditory reading-comprehension (matching printed words to dictated words) and oral reading (naming printed words).

The complexities of assessment and treatment for brain-injured youngsters demand interdisciplinary effort. A multiprofessional approach can provide both varied and congruent information to guide treatment. While the team approach has been extolled, few research studies have attempted to document its efficiency or efficacy. The present study employed an interdisciplinary model to assess the progress of brain-injured children during their course of treatment. Specifically, the study attempted to document the effectiveness of a team approach over a 3.5 month period of intensive treatment for two etiologically distinct groups of children (acquired injury, n = 7; congenital injury, n = 10). Analysis of developmental and behavioral progress over the period of team intervention (-x = 3.5 months) revealed significant pre-post gains for the congenital as well as the acquired groups of brain-injured children. Significant team therapy effects beyond gains expected due to maturation were evident across four developmental domains (i.e., cognitive, socio-emotional, self-care, perceptual/fine motor) and five behavioral processes (i.e., social orientation, attention, receptive communication, object orientation, and self-regulation) on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Early Intervention Developmental Profile, and Carolina Record of Individual Behavior. Progress was less evident in various neuromotor, self-regulatory, and neurophysiological areas (i.e., gross motor, expressive communication, activity, reactivity, frustration, and consolability) despite intervention in these areas. Suggested guidelines for team diagnosis, intervention, and program evaluation for young brain-injured children are detailed.

Exclusion of stimuli involved in complex stimulus relations was examined in a severely retarded young man. On two-comparison arbitrary auditory-visual matching-to-sample trials, the subject learned first to select (a) either of two different food items in response to the same spoken-name sample of (b) the same food item in response to either of two different spoken names. Then, on exclusion test trials, a food involved in one or the other type of relation was displayed with a novel food (i.e., one not yet related to a name); the spoken-name sample was also novel. On such trials, the subject selected the novel food, apparently excluding the food involved in learned relations. The study systematically replicates and extends research on exclusion performance of low-functioning mentally retarded individuals and provides additional data on relational learning in this population.

The present study focuses on procedures for facilitating the social and psychological integration of autistic and autistic-like children into an elementary school. The effect on the attitudes and positive behavioral initiations of regular-class students toward their autistic peers were assessed as a function of (a) information about handicapped persons and controlled experiences with autistic children, and (b) autistic students' social skill training. Results revealed that regular-class students who had both received information about exceptionalities and participated in controlled experiences with autistic children had the most positive attitude and made the greatest number of positive behavioral initiations toward the handicapped subjects. In addition, most frequently, the regular-class students' behavioral initiations were aimed toward those autistic children who had received social skill training. Implications are drawn for placement of increasing numbers of severely handicapped children and youth in age-appropriate public school settings.

This study investigated the usefulness of behavior engagement as an outcome measure for discerning the efficacy of intervention efforts, broadly conceived as specific attempts at affecting child performance through environmental manipulation. Engagement refers to the amount of time children spend interacting with the environment in a developmentally appropriate manner. Levels of engagement were measured using the Planned Activity Check (PLA-Check) among preschool mentally retarded, handicapped, at-risk, and nonhandicapped children participating in two different types of programs. One was traditional in orientation and the other nontraditional. The traditional program focused on the children manifesting discrete forms of criterion behavior, while the nontraditional program emphasized engagement as the focus of classroom efforts. PLA-Checks were taken during four classroom activities on 2 separate days. The results showed the engagement levels differed as a function of program type and classroom activities within programs. Engagement levels were found to be consistently more stable in the nontraditional program. The findings were discussed in terms of the usefulness of engagement as a behavioral measure of the efficacy of early intervention.