M.Ed. (Inclusive Education) / This study explored the nature of support for Reception Year teachers of learners with severe intellectual impairment at Lerato Special School (pseudonym) which is in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg in South Africa. As a past Reception Year teacher at this school, I experienced numerous challenges in teaching these learners, which prompted me to research more in this area. I experienced challenges such as overprotection of the learners by their parents, language barriers, lack of parental support, high learner-teacher ratio and health problems. From the focus group interview conducted, these were the same challenges experienced by the Reception Year teachers of Lerato Special School. As a result, I embarked on this study to find out from these teachers the extent of support that they are receiving and still require for them to be able to execute their duties to the expected standard in terms of teaching these young and inexperienced learners to their maximum potential development. The Education White Paper 6 (DoE, 2001) outlines four levels of support for both teachers and learners. At the national level, policy is formulated, and it is implemented at the provincial level (Landsberg, 2011). The district level provides co-ordinated professional services in supporting teachers, drawing on expertise in specialised schools through the district based support teams (DBST). Lastly, at the institution level the school based support teams (SBST) support teachers and learners directly. Teacher support teams are a way of supporting individual teachers who request support over a teaching concern relating to special educational needs (Cresse, Norwich & Daniels, 2000). The focus of district and institutional level support should be on differentiated teaching strategies, overcoming barriers, curricular adaptation, flexible teaching methods, individualised learning support material and assessment concessions. Since teachers are the primary agents for achieving such specialised education for intellectually impaired learners, the teachers should be fully supported in their endeavours. Yet, it is my experience in this special school that teachers are not being fully supported, particularly, teachers who are teaching severely intellectually impaired children between five and ten years old ...

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The purpose of this study was to compare the attachment process of mothers with and without a handicapped infant and to examine the effects of stress and the social support network on this process. The research was a prospective, longitudinal study comparing two different mother-infant groups on the dependent variable, maternal attachment. The independent variables handicap-nonhandicap, maternal characteristics, perinatal events, and other stressors were analyzed for their effect on maternal attachment. The social support network was examined to determine its direct and indirect effect on the attachment process. The sample was composed of 36 mother-infant dyads. Data were gathered in the home at one, six, and twelve months postpartum using interviews, questionnaires and observation. Upon completion of data collection, comparisons were made between those mothers having a handicapped infant (n = 15) and those having a nonhandicapped infant (n = 21). Quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed to answer the study questions. The results indicate that there were significant differences in maternal attachment at one month postpartum with the mothers having a handicapped infant exhibiting fewer attachment behaviors. When the effects of prenatal support were partialled out, the handicap-nonhandicap variable no longer correlated significantly with maternal attachment suggesting that support was buffering the effects of having a handicapped infant. The results of the qualitative analysis also indicated that mothers having a handicapped infant were having problems with attachment. The support variables, affect and affirmation, were positively associated with maternal attachment for those mothers having a handicapped infant, while aid support was negatively correlated with maternal attachment. The qualitative analysis found that the mothers having a handicapped infant gained new support members and that more professionals became part of their support systems. In spite of gaining new support members, these mothers felt that they had less aid. At one year postpartum, mothers with a handicapped infant were experiencing more stressors than mothers with a nonhandicapped infant. Furthermore, stressors were negatively correlated with maternal attachment.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if children labeled as “severe” functional articulation disordered, who had been enrolled in public school speech programs for one year or more, exhibited dyspraxic-like characteristics. Twenty individuals between the ages of 8 and 11 were chosen from the Gresham Public Schools, Lynch Public Schools, Portland Public Schools, Rockwood Public Schools and the Crippled Children’s Division, University of Oregon Medical School to serve as subjects for the three groups in this study. Eight subjects who comprised the experimental group were 11 severe11 functional articulation disorders and were selected from the public schools. Each misarticulated four or more phonemes, consistently or inconsistently, in isolation, syllables, words or conversation; each had made little or very slow progress according to his speech clinician and each had been enrolled in speech management for one year or more as a functional articulation case. Eight subjects in the normal control group were individuals selected from the public schools, with no speech or language problems. Each had never been enrolled in nor recommended for a speech intervention program. Four subjects in the dyspraxic control group were selected from the University of Oregon Medical School. Prior to the date of this investigation, each had been diagnosed as displaying developmental dyspraxia, dyspraxia of speech or verbal dyspraxia. The Modified Apraxia Battery (NAB) utilized in this investigation was a nonstandardized battery consisting of a verbal section and a nonverbal section. The verbal section was composed of ten subtests designed to delineate the presence of a dyspraxia of speech; the nonverbal section was composed of one subtest designed to delineate an oral apraxia and one subtest designed to delineate a limb apraxia. The results of this study revealed a highly significant difference in performance on the verbal section between the normal subjects and the “severe” functional articulation subjects with the normals performing better. A highly significant difference also was found between the normal subjects and the dyspraxic subjects with the normals performing better on the verbal section of the MAB. No significant difference was revealed, however, between the dyspraxics and the “severe” functional articulation cases. It was inferred, therefore, that these two groups performed in a similar manner because they exhibited similar verbal characteristics. “Severe” functional articulation disordered subjects were, therefore, found to exhibit verbal dyspraxic-like characteristics. No significant difference in performance was shown on the nonverbal section among the three groups. It appears the verbal section of the Modified Apraxia Battery much more effectively differentiates those displaying dyspraxic-like characteristics from those who do not than does the nonverbal section. Chi square analysis of items on the NAB supported this contention further suggesting subsection 3, Multisyllabic Words and subsection 6, Sentences are the most discriminating verbal items.

The goal of this paper will be to further explore the use of Gestalt therapy in the Parent-Education Program and to find a way in which its effectiveness in freeing parents of emotional barriers to growth can be evaluated. Our specific objectives will, therefore be to (1) review the literature and present our own assumptions on parental responses to having a handicapped child, (2) explore the basis of Gestalt therapy and relate it to the needs of parents who have handicapped children. (3) describe the setting in which the Parent-Education Program and its Gestalt component takes place, and (4) suggest the use of the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) as an appropriate tool for future use in evaluating the effectiveness of the Gestalt component of this program.

Children with severe physical disabilities often do not have the capabilities for oral communication. Therefore, the vocabulary needs of nonspeaking children has been a subject of research in the area of augmentative communication for a number of years. The idea of allowing children with disabilities the opportunity for expression and communication is one not easily ignored. Obtaining vocabulary items, however, that are useful to nonspeaking disabled children that also meet normal language acquisition standards has been a concern. This study specifically addresses this concern by looking into the vocabulary issues of twins. The purpose of this research project is to verify that differences exist in the expressive vocabulary needs that are determined for a nonspeaking, cerebral-palsied twin and a speaking, able-bodied twin by a caregiver despite similar verbal environments.

This study reports the characteristics of home visitor training based on the results of a national survey of nominated best practice home visiting programs that service children with disabilities and their families. Two hundred thirty-six programs were nominated by their state's director of Maternal-Child Health and/or their state's Part H Coordinator as community-based programs that have had success integrating home visiting services into their community's overall system of care for children eligible for Part H services and/or special health care needs. The return rate of the survey was 85%, and these 193 programs serve as the basis for this study. Results include information on topic areas on which home visitors received preservice and inservice training (i.e., atypical child development, community-based services, cultural competence), the amount of training home visitors received (i.e., hours of preservice and inservice training), and how training practices compare to what experts in the field view as recommended practices. The results indicate that the majority of program directors provided their home visitors with preservice and inservice training. The results also suggest that agencies that only employed professional home visitors tended to provide more training than those agencies employing only paraprofessionals. The results of this study indicate that a program's model of service delivery did not predict the amount or type of training home visitors received. The discussion includes recommendations that are offered to directors of home visiting programs.

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