Career education for the trainable mentally retarded: Issues and concerns

The paper reviews the development of the career education concept generally, and more specifically as related to trainable mentally handicapped individuals. Issues and concerns of direct relevance to this population are discussed.     

The developmental class: Best of both worlds for the mentally retarded

An argument is presented for grouping retarded children in school by developmental level rather than by chronological age or IQ. The potential advantages of this scheme are discussed in terms of the effects on: teaching, social acceptance and self-esteem, motivation, parental acceptance, and general benefits to society at large.     

Educational services for the mentally retarded in developing countries

(1) A consideration of educational services for the mentally retarded in developing countries should take place within the context of existing educational systems and the problems of educational growth. (2) Para-medical teams/primary health care workers can assist in the identification of handicapped persons. (3) Teachers should be helped to develop basic assessment procedures. (4) Much more importance should be attached to the role of voluntary agencies. (5) Governments should consider the integration of the mildly and moderately retarded and the provision of a special education element in teacher training courses. (6) Many problems confront the Community Rehabilitation Programmes which are being promoted by the WHO.     

Comparison of the WISC-R and PPVT for a group of mentally retarded students

This study compared the WISC-R and PPVT scores for a group of 65 students classified as mentally retarded, ranging in age from 7.5 to 14.5. Pearson product moments (r) and correlated t values were employed in the analysis of data. The evidence from the present study indicated that for this sample of mildly retarded children and youth, the PPVT IQ score is significantly higher than the Full Scale IQ from the WISC-R. The current findings indicate that the same general pattern exists for the WISC-R and PPVT as for the WISC and PPVT scores.     

Computational errors of mentally retarded students

This study examined the computational errors made by 370 educable mentally retarded students on the arithmetic subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test. There were 233 males and 137 females in the sample, and the ages ranged from 8 to 18. Engelhardt's (1977) error classification was used to identify error types. Retarded students had a lower percent of grouping and inappropriate inversion errors and a higher percent of incorrect operation errors than regular students had in Engelhardt's study.     

Reliability of the concept assessment kit-conservation for educable mentally retarded children

Internal consistency, alternate form, and stability coefficients for the CAK-C were obtained for a sample of 135 educable mentally retarded children. The internal consistency and alternate form coefficients appear to be acceptably high, and the stability coefficients, while appreciably lower, still suggest some degree of consistency over a year's time. The reliability of the CAK-C is judged to be satisfactory for EMR children.     

Correlates of the concept assessment kit-conservation for educable mentally retarded children

The relations of the CAK-C to the Stanford-Binet and the WRAT were explored for a sample of 155 educable mentally retarded children. Correlational analyses indicated that: (a) The CAK-C is more closely related to MA than to either CA or IQ. (b) Both Reading and Arithmetic are more closely related to MA than to the CAK-C. The results support the position that Piagetian intelligence is somewhat distinct from psychometric intelligence, but suggest that the latter is the better predictor of academic achievement.