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The practicum described in this report addressed the expressed need and desire of parents of special needs children in Marblehead Massachusetts to participate in a support group to help solve mutual problems and discuss shared frustrations. A series of four workshops for parents was developed. Goals of the practicum were (1) to have parents take over the management and direction of the group; (2) to improve communications between the school system and the parents by having school staff present information at scheduled workshops; and (3) to have parents reach out to one another and establish their own network of individual support. Of the parents who attended the workshops, more than 75 percent indicated that these goals were met, decided to continue the group, and stated that the meetings were very successful. (Author/RH)

For a school year, a language arts software program was used to help special needs children in Marblehead, Massachusetts who represented a range of learning disabilities and emotional, behavioral and physical disorders of varying degrees of severity. The program had three major components, entitled "Nouns,""Verbs," and "Adjectives." These components encompassed both drill and practice sections and creative writing. The following general principles applying to special needs children were incorporated in the program: individualization, personalized instruction, repetitions of principles and vocabulary, self-paced activity, ease of use, positive response to answers, and hierarchy of skills in exercise design. The study included 30 second through sixth graders, evenly divided between an experimental and a control group. Language sections of McGraw Hill's Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) were used as pretest and posttest measures of academic change, while the Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory and anecdotal data recorded feelings of self-worth before and after intervention. Of the four areas addressed in the study through the CTBS testing, two met expected gains (vocabulary and spelling) and two did not (language mechanics and language expression). The experimental group showed an increase of 3.07 points on the Self-Esteem Inventory, while the controls registered a decrease of 1.20 points. Case studies and charts indicating each child's academic and affective gains are provided. Among other materials, appendices include the questionnaire for teachers; the self-esteem inventory; a sample log; and data on changes in vocabulary, spelling, language mechanics, language expression, and self-esteem scores. (AS)