Remedial and Special Education

The present study sought to describe the classroom behavior patterns of learning disabled adolescents in mainstream academic classes. The school survival skills of the 36 LD students in regular high school classes were measured through direct observation. These observational data were compared with data on emotionally disturbed students and a control sample of nonhandicapped students in the same mainstream classes. The LD students tended to come to class ill-equipped and attend to the lesson about 60% of the time. They followed teachers' procedural directions, but avoided giving information and seldom volunteered comments or questions. This characterization has been confirmed by other research studies. However, the current data suggest that this passive behavior may be quite normal for high school students in regular track academic classes. Moreover, in on-task behaviors, compliance to procedural requests, responses to informational requests, asking questions, and making unsolicited, content-appropriate comments, the LD group's performance was not significantly different from that of the control sample. Differences among LD and ED students were found; the LD group was significantly less active than the ED group in class.

Interview and questionnaire data were gathered from a sample of 93 physically disabled college students with an eye toward building a richer empirical picture of their lives on the college campus. The findings show that while in many respects they differ little from any other group of students, some areas of college life appear to pose special adjustment problems for physically disabled students. Several avenues for future research are suggested.

The purpose of this study was to assess the criterion, construct, and concurrent validity of four informal reading comprehension measures: question answering tests, recall measures, oral passage reading tests, and cloze techniques. Mildly and moderately handicapped middle and junior high school boys (N = 70) were administered the informal measures in one sitting, with four passages equally represented across the four measures and with the administration order of measures counterbalanced. Criterion tests, the Reading Comprehension and Word Study Skills subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test, also were administered in a separate sitting. Results indicated that the correct oral reading rate score demonstrated the strongest criterion validity, with adequate construct and concurrent validity. A second acceptable index was the written recall measure. Implications for designing reading comprehension monitoring procedures are discussed.

Our goal in this article is to examine two ways in which recent psychological theory has influenced the use of computers in reading instruction. In particular, we look at two competing theories, the componential and the constructivist, and the implications that each carries for computer-based practice. To exemplify these perspectives, we examine two computer environments, RACER and the Reader's Assistant. In conclusion, we put forward the notion of “contextualization” as a basis for integrating the componential and constructivist approaches into a sensible model of computer use in the special education classroom.

The performance of third- and fifth-grade good and poor readers was compared in order to determine if (a) they differed in their ability to comprehend literal and metaphoric language, (b) they differed in their ability to perform metaphor-related language tasks, and (c) their ability to comprehend metaphoric language was related to their performance on the metaphor-related language tasks. Results of separate 2 x 2 (group by grade) ANOVAs indicated that while there was no difference in performance between the two groups on the literal comprehension task, there were significant differences in their performance on both the metaphor comprehension task and on the metaphor-related language tasks. The findings also indicated differences in the pattern of correlations among the good and poor reading groups' metaphor scores and their scores on the metaphor-related language tasks. The results are discussed from a metacognitive perspective with implications for reading instruction.

The present study evaluated a program for establishing sound blending and word skills in trainable mentally retarded students. Seven subjects participated. Sound blending was taught in six steps, using words as the beginning units. The training involved procedures to (a) gradually increase pauses between verbally presented stimuli (words, syllables, phonemes) and (b) initially use and then withdraw pictures for prompting blending responses. Word reading was taught in two steps, involving two- and three-letter words. A multiple-probe technique was used for each subject. The data indicated that (a) the procedures were effective for all steps and (b) the training of some steps resulted in increases in correct responding and/or appropriate response (blending and reading) approximations in other untrained steps.

This paper discusses how the collaborative relationships of classroom, remedial, and special education teachers might be improved to develop specialized reading programs for low achieving and handicapped students. Collaboration in the context of a teacher consultative process is described, focusing on the current status of some remedial reading education programs. A decision-making framework (Levels of Intensity of Intervention) is also presented for determining content of instruction for students with special needs, with emphasis placed upon using the framework at various stages of the collaborative consultation process. Included is an example of a collaborative reading program matched to the framework and the stages of collaborative consultation for problem solving and modification of programming and instruction. Finally, consideration is given to funding and administration of such collaborative, specialized reading programs.