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This final report of the Early Childhood Demonstration Program for the Disadvantaged, begun in October 1969 at the Learning Research Center of West Chester State College, West Chester, Pennsylvania, contains the evaluative results of 80 children enrolled since 1969. The aim of this compensatory program was to develop an infant education curriculum with a strong cognitive emphasis, but based in the initial building of a firm foundation of sensory-perceptual abilities as a prerequisite step. The early childhood intervention program attempted to reconstruct an environment of educationally disadvantaged children which educationally incapacitated them before they entered school. This attempt was significant in that it tried to start such compensatory training in a structured manner at ages younger than generally thought practical. Covered in this report are: (1) a review of related research; (2) the rationale of the program; (3) program activities; and, (4) an evaluation, including subjective and objective results as well as conclusions. (Author/SB)

A motion picture test of perceptual abilities has been developed for use as a screening test with elementary school children. Part I has 25 items in which the child must identify a hidden stimulus figure within one of four designs. Part II contains 25 items in which a child must identify from four alternatives a figure formed by three or four separate lines which have been presented successively. The test is a 16mm sound film, is self administering and requires about 30 minutes of total testing time. It is appropriate for use in Grades Four through Six. (Author)

The fifth in a series of annual bibliographies of Collaborative Perinatal Project is presented. All manuscripts based on core data presented at national and international professional conventions and/or published in variety of medical and public health journals or periodicals are covered. (NF)

The popular view among American psychologists has been that there is a continuity of psychological structure that is shaped by early experience. Data gathered in studies of Guatemalan villages imply serious discontinuities in the development of particular cognitive competencies and capacities for affect through preadolescence. The first two years of life are not a good predictor of future functioning in all environmental contexts. Separate maturational factors seem to set the time of emergence of basic cognitive functions, although experience can slow or speed up that emergence to a degree. In the Guatemalan villages observed, infants are permitted very little activity in the first 15 months, are not allowed outside, have little to play with, and are seldom played with. These infants exhibit extreme motoric passivity, but they develop normally in childhood. Identical procedures involving color and movement were administered to American and Guatemalan infants. Guatemalan infants were significantly less attentive than the Americans, and Americans had longer fixation times. To test the reversibility of the apparent slowing of cognitive growth in the Guatemalan child, cognitive tests were administered to rural and urban middle-class and economically disadvantaged preadolescents. Their performance on tests of perceptual analysis, perceptual inference, recall and recognition memory was comparable to American middle-class norms. Certain data suggest that economically disadvantaged American and Guatemalan children aged 5-9 are from one to three years behind middle-class children in demonstrating some cognitive skills but that these competencies emerge by age 10 or 11. (KM)

Historically, handicapped people have been caught in a job trap. Statistics of selected groups of handicapped people indicate a history of unemployment, underemployment, lack of job satisfaction and frustration. Even when professional training is introduced handicapped people generally receive lower wages than their non-handicapped peers. If this history is to be reversed then new approaches must be attempted in the rehabilitation process. The systems model represents one viable approach. With an understanding of the history of unemployment and underemployment of deaf people, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) has developed its programs and services utilizing the systems model. The major components of the NTID educational system are defined and described, including the concept of accountability. The importance of feedback and program flexibility are highlighted. Three basic principles are inherent in the system: (1) the program must be a vital, dynamic, organized whole; (2) it should be behaviorally oriented and quantifiable, if possible; and (3) beginning and on-going documentation is mandatory. (Author/TA)

Analyses of self-disclosure behavior under multiple conditions of social isolation and confinement replicated earlier findings and generally confirmed hypotheses derived from social penetration theory. Major findings link self-disclosure to environmental parameters and interpersonal friction. In the Privacy without Stimulation condition, Ss possibly attempted to cope with this austerity by engaging in verbal exchanges which, doubtlessly, decreased social distance between pair-members and resulted in greater disclosure breadth at high intimacy levels. Stimulation in the No-Privacy groups probably mediated verbal exchanges by reminding Ss of past experiences. However, the especially close interaction forced by the No-Privacy manipulation tended to encourage guardedness; while groups in Privacy with Stimulation exhibited the least amount of disclosure due to being physically separated, especially those under Long Mission Expectations. Findings have broad implication for exchange theories and can be useful in training men to adapt to isolated and confined situations. (Author)

Described is a program for the prevention of learning failure and its emotional and behavioral consequences initiated by the Learning Disorders Unit of the New York University Medical School with the cooperation of public schools in the lower East Side of New York City. This project involved the intensive individual examination of every child early in the first grade - psychiatrically, neurologically, psychologically, and educationally - to identify those children vulnerable to emotional decompensation and to learning failure. A program of appropriate intervention was designed for each child based upon stimulation of those specific areas of defect revealed by his perceptual and neurological profile. Results, extending over a 4-year period, show that these children can respond to an intervention approach. Surveys of the project schools revealed that at least one-third of all children in the first grades did not have the perceptual and neurological organization needed to learn to read. The pervasiveness of these problems highlights the need to provide early, school-based intervention to prevent learning failure and to interrupt the destructive influence of learning disability upon emotional development. (CS)

Noting the need for action to alleviate the illitaracy which handicaps half of the world's population and 11 percent of America's, it was emphasized (1) that the problem is particularly intense in urban schools where failure rates and nonreaders run from two-thirds to 50 times higher than in other schools; (2) that the percentage of retarded readers among Negroes is twice that of the national average; and (3) that retarded readers are twice as prevalent among boys as among girls. Defects in teaching were related to attendance problems, the inequality of schools, poor methods, and large classes as well as to poor teaching. It was noted that environmental factors often deprive children from exposure to cognitive stimulations such as complex speech patterns and vocabulary and from motivating encouragement and rewards in the school, the home, and the community. Psychophysiological factors listed as detrimental included poor health, sensory defects, intellectual defects, brain injuries, and special reading disabilities. It was concluded that pediatricians can show their concern by promoting maternal and child health programs, health and education programs for the preschool child, and revised school curricula and classroom conditions. Tables and a bibliography are included. (BT)

RESEARCH CONCERNING SENSORY DEPRIVATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO PERSONALITY VARIABLES AND SUBSEQUENT BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE CHANGES IS REVIEWED. THREE LIMITATIONS OF THE CONGENITALLY BLIND ARE LISTED (1) RESTRICTION IN THE RANGE AND VARIETY OF EXPERIENCES, (2) DEFICITS IN THE ABILITY TO MOVE ABOUT, (3) DEFICITS IN THE CAPACITY TO CONTROL THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE SELF IN RELATION TO IT. SEVERAL POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THESE LIMITATIONS OF THE CONGENITALLY BLIND AND CERTAIN TRAITS THEY EXHIBIT ARE EXPLORED--(1) BLINDNESS AND AUTO-EROTICISM, (2) LOWERED OBJECT RELATIONS AND NARCISSISM, AND (3) FANTASY. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SENSORY DEPRIVATION AND CREATIVE THOUGHT IS DISCUSSED. THE REHABILITATION COUNSELOR, KEEPING IN MIND THE FUNCTIONAL NATURE OF THESE TRAITS IN THE BLIND, MUST (1) DESIGN PROGRAMS TAKING THE TRAITS INTO ACCOUNT, (2) USE MULTISENSORY TRAINING TO FACILITATE MEANINGFULNESS OF LEARNING SITUATIONS, (3) EMPHASIZE CREATIVE VOCATIONS SUCH AS DESIGNING, MUSIC, AND ADVERTISING. A REFERENCE LIST OF 19 ITEMS IS INCLUDED. (RS)

Individual differences in four separation-related behaviors, protest, following, and positive greetings or crying on reunion, were examined for 26 infants observed intensively at home during the fourth quarter-year, and considered in relation to one another, to other infant behaviors, and to maternal behavior. Contrary to Freudian and other hypotheses, separation protest was found to be related positively to maternal unresponsiveness to crying and negatively to maternal sensitivity to signals, while positive greetings had the converse of these relationships. The first factor yielded by a factor analysis seemed to reflect a security-insecurity dimension in an infant's organization of attachment behavior to his mother. The anxious cluster of behaviors included separation prgest and crying on reunion, as well as crying when put down and frequency and duration of crying in general. The secure cluster included positive greetings on reunion and (to a lesser extent) following a separation, as well as positive responses both to being held and being put down. These findings do not yield a picture of simple positive co-variation among attachment behaviors, but rather one of complex patterning with positive co-variation within, but not between, behavioral clusters. (Author)

To reverse the general decline in school performance, educationists must restructure learning experiences to balance the present fragmented and specialized linear processes with the sensory/spatial processes, so that an educational system commensurate with the neutral balance of both cerebral hemispheres might emerge. (MB)

Data from the observation of sensory stimuli in the premature infant's hospital environment suggest that premature infants may suffer from an inappropriate pattern rather than an inadequate amount of stimulation. (Author/JMB)

Social, psychological, and physiological factors all impinge on the awareness of the handicapped, the elderly, and the rest of us in experiencing architecture. (Author)

Techniques have been developed for research and teaching purposes on the sensory losses that accompany the aging process. By experiencing the sensory loss, those working with the aged understand how the environment and professional interaction can assist, support, and enhance coping and functioning by the older person. (Author)

Reports findings of an investigation of the development of 54 children at 8 years of age with congenital rubella. Examines the relation between specific patterns of physical disability and cognitive and adaptive behavior. (ED)

Comparison of responses of 49 blind and 37 sighted children, 5 to 7 years of age, on the Kephart Scale (developed to assess personal and environmental awareness of blind children) indicated that the blind children had misinformation, fragmented concepts, and a limited ability to differentiate information. (MC)

The cerebral palsied child with severe neuromuscular impairment is the focus of a research paper which reviews physiologic limitations as well as psychological and social conditions that interfere with normalization of the handicapped child from birth to the beginning of the school years. (MC)

Twelve months after a 24-hour period in a socially isolated, monotonous environment, subjects had reduced their rate of cigarette smoking by an average of 48 percent, compared with 16 percent for control subjects. A smaller sample reported similar results at the end of 24 months. (Author)

Interpersonal distance measures were used in an attempt to objectify the sense of isolation said to be present in a child with fatal illness as he nears deat h. A theoretical explanation of the results is offered based on social learning theory. (Author)

Describes reportedly successful treatment of deaf-mutes in China by acupuncture, and suggests that the disorders might have been more psychological than physical. The author comments that interpretation of poorly documented reports from unfamiliar cultures is extremely difficult. (AV)