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The article presents various activities used to develop the art skills of exceptional children. The art activities include the use of crayons, cutting with the use of scissors, pasting, folding, tracing, painting, and cleaning up. The artcraft with crepe paper was also introduced to children in which they were able to know the usage of crepe paper. It is advisable to use the Dennison Crepe Paper for it is more stronger and can be stretched more successfully. Children can make mats, hot dish pads, napkin rings, sewing baskets, fruit baskets, and waste baskets out of crepe paper raffia.

The article introduces various topics published within the issue, including one about the theories of language learning for exceptional children and another on the struggles, frustrations, and successes in deaf education.

The article presents the criticism of the author against the article "Special Education for the Mentally Handicapped: A Paradox," by Orville Johnson. He points out several aspects of the article, including the approach to special education proposed by Johnson which involves increasing the motivational level of the learner by increasing the difficulty of the tasks being learned by the children. He comments that some of Johnson's exposition regarding the issue overlooks a major portion of the literature on the effects of motivational level upon learning and performance. Furthermore, the author stresses out that Johnson did not discuss the entirety of any of the additional experimental literature which suggests that heightened drive intervenes with learning and performance under certain conditions.

The article focuses on the educational program designed to provide blind college bound students with advance instruction in English composition, typing, mathematics and mobility in New Jersey. The typing program was concerned with familiarizing the students with the forms of papers likely to be required in college. In the investigation, students were encouraged to make a connection between written language and the more familiar oral speech. The researchers concluded that the advanced training is essential to accustom the child to producing the level of work expected of him in college.

The article announces the availability of the copies of the "Exceptional Child Educational Abstracts," a product of The Council for Exceptional Children Information Center. It is scheduled as a quarterly publication and will contain the abstracts stored on the computer file at the center. The indexes to these documents include an author index and a special general classification index. It also provides basic bibliographies on almost twenty-five special education topics. The periodical also includes data on how to obtain microfiche through reproduction service.

This article focuses on regular arts and crafts activities for handicapped children involving the use of their toes. The art education students at Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana have noted that toe painting is a suitable project for handicapped children. The activity is manipulated by the feet, toes and the balls of the feet. The art education students have assured that special education students need very little extra assistance in toe painting. The steps for toe painting are presented.

The article presents an author's comment to the review of their book entitled "Psychology and Education of the Gifted." Problems arise as papers appear in an entirely different context from which they were originally intended. The reviewer evaluated the various individual papers in the book as though carrying the authors beyond what is considered an appropriate behavior for an editor. Although, the author was grateful to the editor for the selection of such a careful and considerate reviewer and for the opportunity to append these afterthoughts.

The article presents information on practical programs, materials and techniques for use with learning disability children in classroom, center or clinic. The article informs about a Tactile Kinesthetic teaching technique. A fine metal wire mesh screen 8 by 11 inches is placed on the table or desk and a sheet of writing paper is laid over it. The child takes a dark colored crayon and writes or prints the series of words to be learned by pressing firmly to form letters about 1 or 2 inches high. The words should be written sometimes from dictation by the teacher and sometimes by copying from a model set of words. Four, five or six words may be written or printed on one sheet. Then cut across the sheet in separate strips with a word to each strip. The letter lines can easily be felt and followed with the tip of a finger. The child is blindfolded. The teacher then takes the child's hand and gently traces over the letters of one of the words by moving the child's index finger over the surface, following the lines. Learning Lotto is another game that can be played by 2-6 players in a group once the game has been played with the aid of the teacher.

The article presents an alternative approach for teaching writing to mentally retarded children. The author asserted that the approach have been proven effective by most special education teachers. The only thing a teacher must prepare are sample handwritings. However, the author clarified that teaching handwriting for the retarded would be a tedious task. The instructional pace must be then slower. Participation from all pupils is encouraged. A simplified print alphabet would be a good starting model. The print alphabet must be easy to learn, closely related to reading charts, books, and similar materials, and closely related to the cursive style.

The article gives instructions on how to create a device for reading called Wordscope. The device is aimed at exceptional children. Materials include a medium-sized substantial box, paints, and a heavy white roll of paper.

The article discusses the techniques involving the tactile-kinesthetic approaches for teaching reading to slow learning children. One of the classic pattern for tactile-kinesthetic techniques is the Fernald method of remedial reading, in which the child selects his own vocabulary. Other tactile-kinesthetic approaches include arranging letters of various materials into words and sentences, writing with one finger or two fingers in a box of dry salt, cutting and pasting traced letters into words or designs, and using of blocks with different words written on the six sides.

The article reports on the third annual Student Literary Award competition in the U.S. The award was sponsored by the Council for Exceptional Children Division for Children with Communication Disorders. It is open to undergraduate and graduate students majoring in audiology education of the learning impaired, psychology, speech pathology, or special education. The participants must prepare a paper which is concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, education, and/or treatment of communications disorders in children. It will be evaluated on the basis of accuracy, use of relevant references, significance of content, originality, clarity, and organization. The paper may be of a review, discussion, or research report format. The entries must not exceed 3,000 words. There will be three copies to be submitted, it must be type written, double spaces on eight and one-half by eleven inches of paper. The first place winner will receive 50 dollars and second place winner will receive 25 dollars.

The article reports on the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Policy Statements approved by the Delegate Assembly in the U.S. The Organization and Administration for Special Education policy statement is prepared by the CEC Policies Commission and is originally derived from a paper by Ernest Willenberg. Such statements suggest some of the major principles on which a special education administrative organization should be based. Special education shares with regular education the basic responsibility of public educational systems to fulfill their right to education for every child.

Many culturally deprived children enter school with learning deficiencies. This paper suggests a way to prevent learning disabilities through a program in the schools designed to train the parent-to-be how to teach his children from infancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews several programs for children with special needs, from historical perspectives, current involvements, and one particular orientation, called the ‘child development model.’ With respect to programs based on the child development model, it is recommended that each state consider planning toward the eventual organization of a child development agency, responsible for all children with special needs, irrespective of their characteristics, educational attainments, and prognoses. Further, it is recommended that, to the degree programs encourage and support the maintenance of children in community environments, they should be rewarded in both specific and general ways; and for purposes of better guaranteeing human rights and due process, citizen advisory and other advocacy groups should be organized throughout a state and given such support as would be needed to make these groups active and responsive grass roots partners in policy and decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advocates an educationally focused definition of problems and procedures in educating handicapped children, with particular emphasis on the aptitude by treatment interaction model as a useful guide for both instructional and research activities. Specialized instructional systems based on decision variables are proposed as an alternative to simple categorization and placement of children based on source variables. A brief review of aptitude by treatment interaction research with handicapped children is followed by implications for the organization of schooling, diagnostic and instructional procedures, and preparation of teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the text of the position paper entitled "Basic Commitments and Responsibilities to Exceptional Children," a statement prepared by the Council for Exceptional Children Policies Commission and approved by the 1971 Delegate Assembly in the U.S. The contents of the statement include: the goal and commitment of special education; implementation of universal education; special education within the schools; the school and the family; the responsibility of higher education; and the levels of government responsibility for the support of special education.

The article focuses on the education and special needs of blind-deaf children. There are several communication systems to be used in communicating with the blind-deaf which include speech and vibration, finger spelling, gestures, sign language and with the use of a machine. It is required to use real things and situations when building language and experience for the blind-deaf child. Like, in teaching the child about the mail, it is appropriate to have him buy paper, envelopes and stamps and instruct him to write a letter. Before educating a blind-deaf child, it is necessary to ensure that his needs have been properly evaluated.

This paper presents the first year results of a study designed to evaluate through a battery of standardized tests the effectiveness of two preschool programs upon the long range school performance of comparable groups of children. One intervention program provided a traditional nursery school experience (N = 30) which worked in conventional ways to improve the personal, social, and motor development of the children; the experimental intervention provided a highly structured program (N = 30) which focused on specific learning tasks chosen from school related curricula, especially tasks designed to enhance language development and cognitive skills. The experimental program proved to be significantly more effective in promoting intellectual functioning, language abilities, perceptual development, and school readiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to a brief report on benefits to handicapped children under Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, this paper raises two major questions: (a) How will special education relate itself to new and diversified programs emerging in general education, such as Compensatory Education? and (b) Are substantial numbers of children not truly handicapped in capacity, but simply functioning as handicapped due to environmental deprivation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews research data concerned with social and emotional adjustment characteristics of mildly retarded children and adolescents. Contrary to a number of statements appearing in various texts and review articles, little is known concerning the type and frequency of occurrence of behavior adjustment problems among the mildly retarded. In addition, there is no suitable evidence to indicate that the adjustment level of special class children is superior to that of retarded children attending regular grades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes principles and assumptions which underlie an experimental special class for conduct problem children which has been developed cooperatively by an interdisciplinary university research center and a public school. A conceptualization of the nature of children's behavior disorders is offered, and some principles of behavior modification and remediation of academic deficiencies are discussed. Some particular characteristics of the conduct problem child relevant to the education process are outlined. Also considered are factors relevant to remediational efforts within the public school setting, including the problem of group versus individual techniques, the role of mental health professionals, the place of other than classroom treatment, the goals of the special class, and the utilization in the regular class of techniques developed in the special class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses behavior principles and techniques of behavior modification which may have implications for utilization in classrooms for exceptional children. Procedures for selection and application of consequences which accelerate or increase the frequency of appropriate behavior, and those which decelerate or decrease the frequency of inappropriate behavior are described. Disadvantages and dangers inherent in random, haphazard application of these principles are cited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The passage of legislation concerning the development of adequate educational programs for the gifted and handicapped children has been supported by The Council for Exceptional Children acting in unison with various organizations. This paper presents (a) a brief review of CEC's past efforts to improve federal legislative provisions; (b) organizational policy statements that were adopted in order to increase CEC's effectiveness as an instrument for the encouragement of legislation for handicapped children; and (c) a look into the future of special education based on current trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a description and analysis of the five titles of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (FL 89-10). Examples which demonstrate how this law can be adopted for handicapped children are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muscular dystrophy, an organic disease of muscles, brings special psychological problems to its child sufferers. This paper points out that knowledge of the psychological dynamics of such handicapped children and their families is of value to the educator. Understanding his own reactions to the handicapped can aid the educator even more in his school program for such children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the research related to two central working hypotheses in the clinical treatment of children with behavior disorders. The first hypothesis, that emotional disturbance in childhood leads to mental illness in adult life, is examined by means of retrospective studies of adult mental patients and by adult followup of child guidance clinic patients. The second hypothesis, that the process of emotional disturbance may be interrupted by clinical treatment, is examined by means of studies comparing the adjustment of children who have received psychotherapy to the adjustment of similar children who have not received psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates the impact that technology could have on special education through the introduction of the student-subject matter interface concept. Various devices are described that could possibly be constructed to meet the unique needs of different types of exceptional children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the advances made through congressional legislation and attempts to provide insight into federal activities that concern all handicapped children and youth. Four people-oriented federal activities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the increasing emphasis on special class placement of educable mentally retarded children and special preparation for teachers. This is in view of the increasing evidence that special classes have been something of a disappointment in terms of accelerating the academic progress of these children, it is proposed that a necessary area of study is a careful analysis of the extent to which special classes actually differ from regular classes in regard to teacher techniques, materials, and content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper stresses the importance of perceptual-motor orientation in the child as a foundation for the symbolic and conceptual activities of the classroom. Consistent and efficient motor patterns permit the child to explore his environment and systematize his relationship to it. Perceptual data are similarly systematized by comparing them with this motoric system. Through such perceptual-motor matching, the perceptual world of the child and his behavioral world come to coincide, it is with this organized system of perceptual input and behavioral output that the child attacks and manipulates symbolic and conceptual material in a veridical fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an outline of characteristics common to the complex syndrome of dyslexia. The author reviews its nature, variability, degree of impairment, and suggests remedial procedures which, he feels, will work toward the improvement of the dyslexic's reading ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several research papers related to the preparation of special education personnel. Two researchers in 1959 concluded that at their time research in this area lagged behind productivity in the general field of special education insofar as the output of experimental studies was concerned. The "Handbook of Research on Teaching," is a contribution to the literature on design and execution of research on teaching. A study centering upon observation as an important methodological procedure in studying the preparation of teachers in general and of special educators in particular was reported by a group of three researchers in 1962. It was their impression that traditional teacher preparation methods do not come to grips with the question of how to maximize the harmony between a teacher's practice and principles of learning and development. Two researchers in 1961 studied the education of special teachers in Western Europe and reported that formal course work in teacher education, even for teachers of deaf and blind children where special preparation is so obviously needed, had been inaugurated only recently in some countries.

The article presents information on various research papers on the mentally retarded published between 1962 to 1965. A study by researcher, Leonard S. Blackman concluded that three schools of thought and analytical technique are the most significant barriers to learning and reasonably successful school performance. They include the neurophysiological inadequacy school, the cultural deprivation and personality aberration school, and the behavioral deficit school. The last of the three was considered to be most useful for psychoeducational translators to cross. It reflects that the special educational needs of the mentally retarded will be best served by the kinds of research that can provide a profile of psychological and physical barriers to learning that are specific to the requirements of particular, clearly understood school tasks. The use of the Wechsler intelligence scales with mentally retarded populations appears to be very useful in concluding their intelligence level. When another researcher, Alfred A. Baumeister applied the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), he cited evidences indicating that among certain populations of retardates the WISC is the most widely used intelligence test.

The article focuses on the effectiveness of speech through color as an aid in speech improvement for the mentally retarded. Pale blue was selected as a color that might suggest breath, red was chosen as the strong voiced symbol and brown for nasal sounds. In assisting in the transfer of sound from a breath to a voiced to a nasal sound, the colors can be used. Symbols can be introduced as soon as there is rapid transfer from breath to voiced to nasal positions. The use of color as a visual aid is important to make speech symbols more meaningful.

The article highlights the planned activities which includes a Valentine unit for children with mental retardation. The Valentine unit has included activities specified to relate the child to the world of reality in a meaningful approach. The unit serves the purpose of creating an awareness of the significance of Valentine's Day, preparing the children in order for them to feel a part of the excitement brought by Valentine's Day, and encouraging verbal expressions of friendship among these children.

The article provides information about the 52nd Annual International Convention of the Council for Exceptional Children to be held in New York City on April 14-19, 1974. The responses received by the Advisory Committee have been distributed to the committees and are now in the final review and scheduling process. Detailed planning is required in the total convention week with time line commitments which make extensions impossible. A criteria is also established for accepting papers, including those which contribute to the teacher learner environment, those which speak to innovative teaching practices, research applicable to instructional programs, and presentations which deal with expanding educational options for exceptional children.

The article reports that the board of governors of the Council for Exceptional Children has authorized the establishment of (1) a policy commission, (2) a standing committee on professional standards and (3) an ad hoc study committee on professional membership requirements. The policy commission would be charged with developing basic papers on selected topics regarding basic papers on selected topics regarding policy positions in situations concerned with the education of exceptional children. The commission would report to the executive committee and boards of directors, and policy statements developed would come before the delegate assembly for adoption. The continuing committee on professional standards is established to (1) consider possible revisions and refinements of the professional standards report adopted by the delegate assembly in Toronto and (2) explore a possible means of implementation of the report.

The article introduces the publication of Home Bound News. Homebound pupils are given the opportunity to express themselves through the publication of a small quarterly paper. The staff of the publication is comprised by students being taught by home instructional service, or through two-way electrical equipment. The staff includes the editor, assistant editor, and reporters. The small quarterly paper is similarly outlined as the usual school paper which contains editorials, book reviews, news items, news quotes, hobbies of boys and girls, original verses, and other familiar contents. The covering and mimeographing has been done by the clerical staff of the department of special education.

For the learning disabled, individualization of instruction is of primary importance. Traditionally) individualized prescriptions for the learning disabled child have relied upon evaluation of the deficient and intact "processes" of the child, using standardized, or norm-referenced, measurement techniques (NRM). Educational prescriptions have then been posited on the basis of such intensive but traditional psychological evaluations. However, for the continuous (not once-and-done) and frequently occurring assessment of a child's educational progress, the relatively new system of measurement methodology known as criterion-referenced measurement (CRM) is more useful. Because the CRM trend is far too often neglected for special education in general and for the learning disabled in particular, this paper discusses three existing CRM systems, provides guidelines for building one's own CRM systems, and summarizes the advantages and difficulties of CRM for children with learning disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No study has investigated delays of reinforcement of more than 30 seconds in the classroom. Yet many classroom delays exceed 30 seconds. A study designed for a four-way analysis of variance investigated (a) delays of reinforcement of 0, 5, and 15 minutes: (b) returning test stimuli before reinforcement versus not returning test stimuli: (c) primary versus intermediate grade range: and (d) trials. Subjects were educable retarded students in public schools. All main effects were found to be significant as well as the interaction between range (c) and procedure (b), and delay (a) and procedure (b). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of grouping children in the classroom for the purpose of improving teaching has been traditionally approached by making groups homogeneous on the basis of age, intelligence test scores, achievement tests, or personality measures. Using an alternative approach, involving direct assessment of academic productivity and pretraining to work in groups, two studies are presented in this article. Experiment I showed that through the management of reinforcement contingencies a teacher could develop and maintain a high rate of academic productivity in a group of two boys with school adjustment problems. Experiment II, which applied similar techniques to a larger group, showed that high rates of work behavior could be maintained as the size of the group increased, and suggested that the proximity of the teacher may be related to the amount of study behavior generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A graduate program designed to train consulting teachers is discussed. Students were instructed in behavior modification techniques and in means of assisting regular classroom teachers with the social and academic behaviors of handicapped children. Three case studies illustrating the types of projects conducted by students are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the developments of evaluation efforts for special education materials within the Instructional Materials Center Network and indicates some of the specific evaluation problems in the future. Evaluation procedures compose mainly of criteria for the acquisition and dissemination of materials and for tabulating information and data regarding the activities of the center. All the centers have been concerned with the ethics of evaluation which involve the professional responsibilities that would make a fair evaluation to both the producer and the consumer. Other related activities of the centers were also cited.

Research on the special education teacher and special education teaching was reviewed, and several unpublished studies reported. The need for systematic research programs in this area eras highlighted. Such programs would (a) explore individually classes of variables that might have some usefulness in explaining attraction to special education teaching, (b) combine the most promising of these variables into a model which would maximize the explanatory power of the individual variables, and (c) test the predictive efficiency of the model using certain experimental techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists several publications on education for exceptional children. They include "Big City Dropouts and Illiterates," by Robert A. Dentler and Mary Ellen Warshauer, "The CAT: Facts About Fantasy," by Mary R. Haworth, "Community Services for the Mentally Handicapped," by J. Tizard, "A Comparison of the Empirical Validity of Six Tests of Ability With Young Educable Retardates," by Max W. Mueller, and "Conference on the Child With Learning Disabilities," by Harold Ruvin and Edwin Ezor.

The author depicts one cooperative state-university approach to implementing the federal directives for preparing supervisors and directors of special education programs for exceptional children in state and local school systems. Internship experiences which are provided graduate students in the state's special education section, in the field, and in intermediate, county, and city school systems are outlined. The underlying theme is the need for sound theoretical and course work background in the administration and supervision of special education services, coupled with broad practical internship experiences in supervision and administration. Additional needs for the extensive consideration of issues and problems involved in special education programing are indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the need for more research in the special education of the mentally retarded in the U.S. For the most part, research has been unable to replicate the previously consistent findings that brain injured children can be reliably differentiated from non-brain injured children in terms of perceptual confusion, conceptual irrelevancy, and motor incoordination. The author points out that research designed to evaluate specialized enrichment programs for many types of mentally retarded children has been done with results ranging from poor to fair.

The article provides tips on how to develop the creative abilities of crippled children. Creative ability is defined as the ability to produce new or novel products or ideas including those of procedural or methodological nature. Recreational activities are encouraged for disabled children in order to elevate their status in the society. The activities must be adapted to the type and extent of disability of the individuals participating. It must include games, free play, competitive sports, arts and crafts, creative writing, and others. Products of the children's works must be properly recognized so as to step-up their self-esteem.

The article discusses the relationship between therapy and school psychologists in special education facilities. Psychologists adapt therapy as a concept of treatment and the application of remedies to the cure and alleviation of personal maladjustment. There are three types of therapy available to the school psychologist: psychotherapy, environmental manipulation outside the direct educational process, and educational therapy. However, school psychology is often regarded a branch of developmental hygiene concepts and techniques. The truth of the matter is that the majority of direct and the indirect therapy needed by pupils are referred to school psychologists.