What Is Right About Special Education

Abstract

Promoting self-determination has become an important aspect of the educational programs of students with disabilities. There is now a sufficient literature base to support some syntheses that enable researchers to judge their progress in this area to date and to provide direction for future research and practice. For this study, we conducted a literature review of studies that measured or examined global self-determination.     

The comparative importance of books: clinical psychology in the health sciences library

Clinical psychology has received little attention as a subject in health sciences library collections. This study seeks to demonstrate the relative importance of the monographic literature to clinical psychology through the examination of citations in graduate student theses and dissertations at the Fordham Health Sciences Library, Wright State University. Dissertations and theses were sampled randomly; citations were classified by format, counted, and subjected to statistical analysis. Books and book chapters together account for 35% of the citations in clinical psychology dissertations, 25% in nursing theses, and 8% in biomedical sciences theses and dissertations. Analysis of variance indicates that the citations in dissertations and theses in the three areas differ significantly (F = 162.2 with 2 and 253 degrees of freedom, P = 0.0001). Dissertations and theses in biomedical sciences and nursing theses both cite significantly more journals per book than the dissertations in clinical psychology. These results support the hypothesis that users of clinical psychology literature rely more heavily on books than many other users of a health sciences library. Problems with using citation analyses in a single subject to determine a serials to monographs ratio for a health sciences library are pointed out.     

Developmental and Psychological Aspects of the Savant Syndrome

A savant is a person with intellectual disability who demonstrates one or more skills above the level expected of someone without intellectual disability. These skills take the form of exceptional musical, artistic or mechanical abilities, prodigious memorization or mathematical talents, and most commonly, the ability to calculate with rapidity the day of the week upon which any given date, past or future, falls. Reported throughout much of this century as objects of amazement, and familiar through the popular press to the general public, there has been a recent surge in experimental studies attempting to describe components of the development of savant abilities, and to determine mental processes used to accomplish these tasks. This survey examines the psychological aspects of the savant syndrome, focusing on the means by which certain abilities, particularly calendar calculation, are accomplished, and highlighting variables postulated as important for development of the syndrome. Implications for the education of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities are discussed, including the relevance of this literature to theories of general intelligence.     

Embedding Interventions to Promote Self-Determination within Multitiered Systems of Supports

Schools are increasingly exploring the implementation of multitiered systems of support. This article reviews the literature pertaining to efforts to promote self-determination to provide initial direction as to how interventions and supports to promote self-determination could be implemented within a tiered framework. The intent is to provide direction to the field on how such an approach can engage all students—including students with and without disabilities—in their learning across the lifespan to promote positive school and postschool outcomes. Specifically, we review interventions and supports that have been described in the literature pertaining to self-determination, organizing our review and analysis around the traditional three-tier approach. Implications for future research and development to promote the universal applicability of self-determination are discussed.     

Promoting the Acquisition and Development of Self-Determination in Young Children with Disabilities

Self-determination is an outcome typically associated with adolescence and adulthood, yet unless there is a solid foundation established during the early elementary years, children will not be prepared to assume greater control over their lives when the time comes to do so. This article provides an introduction to and overview of self-determination and its development, and provides recommendations for instruction during the preschool and early elementary years. We also describe a model of instruction designed to promote self-determination for students from Kindergarten through third grade, and provide suggestions for supporting families to promote this outcome.     

Sweat lactate response during cycling at 30°C and 18°C WBGT

Sweat lactate reflects eccrine gland metabolism. However, the metabolic tendencies of eccrine glands in a hot versus thermoneutral environment are not well understood. Sixteen male volunteers completed a maximal cycling trial and two 60-min cycling trials [30°C?=?30±1°C and 18°C?=?18±1°C wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT)]. The participants were requested to maintain a cadence of 60 rev?·?min^?1 with the intensity individualized at ～ 90% of the ventilatory threshold. Sweat samples at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60?min were analysed for lactate concentration. Sweat rate at 30°C (1380±325?ml?·?h^?1) was significantly greater (P<0.05) than at 18°C (632±311?ml?·?h^?1). Sweat lactate concentration was significantly greater (P<0.05) at each time point during the 18°C trial, with values between trials tending to converge across time. During the 30°C trial, both heart rate (20, 30, 40, 50 and 60?min) and rectal temperature (30, 40, 50 and 60?min) were significantly higher than in the 18°C trial. Higher sweat lactate concentrations coupled with lower sweat rates may indicate a greater relative contribution of oxygen-independent metabolism within eccrine glands during exercise at 18°C. Decreases in sweat lactate concentration across time suggest either greater dilution due to greater sweat volume or increased reliance on aerobic metabolism within eccrine glands. The convergence of lactate concentrations between trials may indicate that time-dependent modifications in sweat gland metabolism occur at different rates contingent partially on environmental conditions.     

Exploring Personal and School Environment Characteristics that Predict Self-Determination

This study examined the degree to which multiple personal (age, gender, disability, and need for educational support) and school environment characteristics (hours in academic classes with general education peers, hours in nonacademic classes with age-peers, attendance at the most recent individualized education plan [IEP] meeting, transition goal for the future on the IEP, and experience with setting goals for the future) predicted student's relative level of self-determination. Age, disability label, hours in academic classes with general education peers, and goal setting experience were significant predictors, accounting for 22% of the variance in self-determination scores. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Self-Determination and Student Transition Planning Knowledge and Skills: Predicting Involvement

Abstract

Promoting active student involvement in transition planning has become best practice in promoting self-determination. This study examined the contribution of self-determination to transition planning knowledge and skills for 180 students with disabilities. Utilizing multiple regression analyses, the study found that global self-determination was a significant predictor of overall transition planning knowledge and skills, as well as of transition planning factors related to knowledge and skills about the individualized education program team process, goals, and decision making. Furthermore, when self-determination was broken into its component elements and included in the analyses, those elements, particularly self-regulation and self-awareness/self-knowledge, became the sole predictors of transition planning knowledge and skills.     

Factors Related to the Expression of Typical and Atypical Repetitive Movements of Young Children with Intellectual Disability

One striking aspect of the behaviour of some young children with developmental disabilities is their engagement in stereotyped, repetitive movements which appear to lack adaptive significance and are perceived as aberrant. These behaviours have received a significant amount of attention by researchers, particularly in relation to their remediation. Repetitive movements are not always aberrant and occur during typical child development. This article reviews research describing developmentally typical and atypical repetitive motor movements of children with and without a disability. Additionally, findings from a regression analysis describing factors associated with the expression of developmentally typical and atypical motor behaviours of young children with developmental disabilities are reported. Findings are discussed in light of previous research.     

SUPPORT NEEDS OF CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES: AGE‐RELATED IMPLICATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT

The Supports Intensity Scale–Children's Version (SIS‐C) was developed to assess the support needs of children and youth aged 5 to 16 years with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Data from the standardization sample of the SIS‐C were analyzed to evaluate the impact of the age cohorts (5–6, 7–8, 9–10, 11–12, 13–14, and 15–16 years) used to stratify the sample on the measurement model, as well as the latent means, standard deviations, and correlations. The findings confirmed measurement invariance across age cohorts, but suggested that at the latent level, younger children, generally, have more intensive support needs and that as students with intellectual disability age, their support needs decrease. In addition, the 15‐ to 16‐year‐old cohort displayed differences in terms of the strength of correlations between support need domains, with stronger correlations than the other age groups. Implications for future research and practice are described.