This study addresses how the temperament characteristics of seven year old learning disabled students are viewed in relation to those of the normally achieving students. Teacher perceptions, parent perceptions, and teacher versus parent perceptions are examined utilizing the six dimensions (activity, adaptability, approach/withdrawal, intensity, distractibility, and persistence) and the three factors (emotionality, sociability, and persistence) of the Temperament Assessment Battery.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the prevalence of specific learning disabilities in school-aged hearing impaired children based on the proposed theoretical definition of the National Joint Committee for Learning Disabilities (1981) and the theoretical definition constructed by the Canadian Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities (1981). The operationalization of these theoretical definitions, coupled with the current operational definition issued by the Texas Education Agency (1983), formulated the investigative framework.

Studies of Individual traits perceived as necessary to achieve managerial effectiveness, while multitudinous in the world of commerce, have yet to be undertaken as they apply to managers in residential facilities serving mentally retarded individuals. The problem of this study was to identify a group of individual traits perceived as characteristic of effective managers in residential facilities for the mentally retarded. Projectively, the identified traits could constitute valid criterion for consideration in the selection process utilized in employing managers for both public and private facilities. The primary purpose of this study was to develop an instrument which would enable the interviewer to secure information regarding specific individual traits. An informed predictive decision regarding the effective management potential, of the individual, for a residential facility for mentally retarded individuals would be greatly enhanced. The secondary purpose of the study was to focus on a comparison between group responses for each of the 25 trait items. The study will identify significant differences and relationships between the responses of State Directors of Mental Retardation Programs, Assistants to Texas Deputy Commissioner for Mental Retardation, Superintendents of Texas State Schools for the Mentally Retarded and a select group of managerial personnel within Texas State Schools …

The study reported herein addressed the identification of the classroom management techniques utilized by teachers of behaviorally disordered children and youth and by teachers of adjudicated children and youth. Specifically the purpose was to examine (a) the self-reported classroom management techniques utilized by teachers of adjudicated or behaviorally disordered children and youth assigned to four types of educational and therapeutic settings, (b) the self-reported classroom management techniques utilized by teachers who have been teaching in a single type educational and therapeutic setting for behaviorally disordered or adjudicated children and youth for various numbers of years, and (c) the self-reported classroom management techniques utilized by teachers of behaviorally disordered or adjudicated children and youth in different age groups assigned to a single type educational and therapeutic setting.

A review of the literature indicated that critical skills needed by educators to work with adjudicated youth in correctional settings had not been sufficiently identified or analyzed. Research efforts using survey instruments appeared to offer a method for gathering data in order to develop and study a comprehensive list of critical skills of correctional educators. A survey instrument was developed in bifurcate format that required respondents to rate 135 skill items according to Importance and Proficiency. Two parallel Likert-type scales were provided so that respondents could rate items according to their perceptions of Importance and Proficiency, The instrument was mailed to three groups consisting of educators in youth correctional facilities, state level administrators of youth corrections, and college/university faculty in correctional education preservice teacher preparation programs. A total of 366 surveys were mailed with 183 (50%) returned. Four hypotheses and eight corollaries were developed. Data were analyzed using MANOVA to test for significant differences among all groups and within subjects for one group (correctional educators). The findings did not support the hypotheses or corollaries. Therefore, all hypotheses and corollaries were rejected. However, ANOVA and Chi-Square procedures revealed significant differences among groups and within Group 1, correctional educators. The findings suggested …

The study investigated adaptive behavior, as measured by the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children (ABIC), in diagnosing mental retardation among elementary school age children who were referred for special education services. Specifically, the study attempted to determine whether or not those children diagnosed as not mentally retarded and denied special education services on the basis of the ABIC data were statistically different, on the variables of intellectual development, academic achievement, and classroom behavior, from those children who were diagnosed mentally retarded and accepted for special education services on the basis of the ABIC data. Further, the study investigated the relationship between adaptive behavior and the prediction of academic achievement in elementary school age children.

This study addressed the attributional predispositions and specific attributions for success and failure of seriously emotionally disturbed adolescent males and nondisturbed, regular education adolescent males (hereafter referred to as disturbed students and nondisturbed students, respectively). Specifically the purpose was to determine an attributional predisposition of disturbed students and nondisturbed students. Furthermore, this study sought to ascertain whether disturbed students and nondisturbed students indicated different attributions for success and failure at achievement tasks. The study then examined the congruence between students' attributional predispositions and their actual attributions.

The problem of this study was the identification of ways and means of reducing paraprofessional turnover in mental health and mental retardation facilities. The high turnover rate of mental health and mental retardation paraprofessionals has major implications for the quality and cost of client services. Several researchers have suggested that adequately trained supervisors can influence the turnover rate among employees as well as their motivation and production. A six-month study of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation released in March, 1980 by a blue ribbon audit team blamed bad management practices, not low pay and poor working conditions, for the high rate of employee turnover. However, few studies have investigated the effect of supervisory training on turnover and researchers have called for additional studies in the area. The purpose of this study was to employ two specific intervention techniques with supervisory personnel in order to determine their effectiveness in reducing the rate of paraprofessional employee turnover in mental health and mental retardation facilities.

The purpose of this study was to describe the extent and quality of prior knowledge, transactional nature, and social context of literacy knowledge demonstrated by young mildly handicapped learners. The study was based on current theories of literacy which view literacy growth as part of the total language system development, and ethnographic methods were used to gather and analyze qualitative data. Language and literacy events were observed in three special education classrooms including 43 students ranging in age from 4 years 1 month to 9 years 11 months. Major findings of the study included: (a) The children in this study demonstrated prior literacy knowledge much like that of non-handicapped peers, (b) Demonstrations of oral and written language system transactions decreased after students received formal instruction in reading and writing. And (c) children's ability to interpret print depended greatly on the presence or absence of context with the print.

The purpose of this investigation was to develop a descriptive profile of both adjudicated and nonadjudicated adolescents educated in a juvenile center/school for delinquent and/or maladapted youth in order to (a) disclose the characteristics of the contemporary adolescent delinquent educated in a community based facility with both day and residential components, (b) discern any differences in demographic data, scholastic data, handicapping conditions, and delinquent behaviors among handicapped and nonhandicapped adolescents with delinquent or maladaptive behaviors, and (c) discover the prevalence by types of handicaps exhibited by this population since the implementation of Public Law 94-142. The subjects for the study were 102 adolescents educated in a juvenile center/school during September 1, 1981, through August 31, 1982.

This study examined the effectiveness of the LEAST Approach to Discipline with junior high school teachers having behaviorally disordered pupils in their classes. The sample consisted of twenty junior high school teachers who were paired on the basis of quantity and problem severity of behaviorally disordered pupils in their classes. Each matched pair was split and randomly assigned to the experimental and control group. Treatment consisted of eight hours of training in the LEAST approach. Subsequently, each experimental teacher was observed in class and given feedback regarding his application of the LEAST approach. The control group received no treatment. Following treatment, a two-month data collection period ensued. During this time data was collected for both groups on seven dependent variables. Specifically these were (1) teacher deviancy management skills, (2) pupil perception of the classroom environment, (3) pupil compliance, (4) office referrals, (5) teacher-parent conferences, (6) pupil absences and (7) non completed assignments.

A review of the literature regarding behavioral characteristics and underlying factors for behaviorally disordered (BD) students revealed that both elementary school aged and secondary school aged BD students may be able to be described by a similar factor structure. Utilizing ratings obtained on a national sample of BD students with the Behavioral Dimensions Rating Scale (BDRS). Research Edition, the pattern of item ratings for students in grades kindergarten through five (K-5) and grades six through eleven (6-11) was examined to confirm this literature-based theory. Multigroup simultaneous confirmatory factor analysis using maximum likelihood estimation procedures was utilized to compare the covariance structures of students in grades K-5 and grades 6-11. A goodness-of-fit index revealed that the covariance matrices of the two groups were invariant. Since the same factor structure could be used to describe BD students in grades K-5 and grades 6-11, the means for the two groups were compared using Hotelling's T^2 statistic for two independent samples. The analysis resulted in finding a significant difference between the two groups' means. A univariate F test was conducted for the behavioral dimensions to locate the source of the mean difference. A significant difference was found only for Factor I: Aggressive/Acting Out, indicating …

With the advent of recent federal mandates, special educators have been inundated with a plethora of intervening strategies, conceptual models, and theories for use in the classroom. The result is manifest in a strong bias among special educators that is not conducive to the student's learning style. Educators, today, are not only being called upon to teach functional academics to emotionally disturbed youth, they are also asked to ameliorate the debilitating effects of emotional disturbance. Thus, educators are presented with unparalleled change from the world of traditional public school education. Unfortunately, teachers of the emotionally disturbed are not meeting that challenge, and often are providing a confused environment for the student. Students perhaps need a synthesis between directive and nondirective teaching styles. The problem under investigation in this study is the effect of a learning condition in which the teacher determines the limits of the classroom in a directive setting and the degree to which the student sets the limits of the classroom in a nondirective setting. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of a directive and nondirective learning environment on the student's acquisition of academic behaviors.

The purpose of this investigation focused on determining the effects of a physical conditioning program on physical fitness and health attitudes on inpatient adolescent male substance abusers during and following participation in a six week fitness program. The fitness measures chosen for this study were the 1 1/2 mile run, skinfold, sit-and-reach, and grip strength. The first four of these measures make up the AAHPERD test battery (AAHPERD, 1980). The Health Attribution Test (Lawlis and Lawlis, 1980) was administered to determine health locus of control.