To examine differences between auditory selective attention abilities of normal and cerebral-palsied individuals, 23 cerebral-palsied and 23 normal subjects (5-21) were asked to repeat a series of 30 items in presence of intermittent white noise. Results indicated that cerebral-palsied individuals perform significantly more poorly when the…

The author, a woman with cerebral palsy, discusses her experiences with adapting microcomputers to her functional skills and describes the inception and growth of the Committee on Personal Computers and the Handicapped (part of the Congress of Organizations of the Physically Handicapped). (CL)

A case study of a young woman in segregrated (handicapped-only) residential and educational environments identifies discrepancies between two human service agencies' stated philosophy of normalization and actual behavior in five areas: (1) prosthetic equipment, (2) home and classroom materials, (3) agency goals and individual programs, (4) agency…

The authors question the assumption that parent participation is critical to the success of early intervention programs and cite the lack of research support for this notion in programs for young children with cerebral palsy. They note that financial considerations may still dictate the need for parent participation. (CL)

Comparative testing in Finland of 30 cerebral palsied (CP) children (aged nine to 13) and 34 normal controls (aged 10 to 12) yielded results such as that acceptance of the dependence resulting from the handicap is essential for CP children's positive self concept and school achievement. (Author/MC)

A mother reviews the family's experiences with a young cerebral palsied daughter, including schooling, travel, and summer camp. The daughter herself, now an adult, remembers early struggles to communicate. (CL)

Describes how Arthur, an adult male with cerebral palsy, learned to read and write using computer technology and a holistic approach. (SR)

Studies of prosodic control in severe dysarthria (DYS) have focused on differences between impaired and nonimpaired speech in terms of the range and variation of fundamental frequency (F0), intensity, and duration. Whether individuals with severe DYS can adequately signal prosodic contrasts and "which" acoustic cues they use to do so has received…

Selective verb and noun deficits have been observed in a number of neurological conditions and their occurrence has been interpreted as evidence for different neural networks underlying the processing of specific word categories. We describe the first case of a familial occurrence of a selective deficit of verb processing. Father (Individual I)…

This study questions commonly held Greek social policy assumptions that families are the best and only providers of support to children and adolescents with impaired mobility. This is because the experiences of family life by Greek adolescents with such impairments can be characterized by a cycle of over-protection, dependency and social…

The parent of a cerebral palsied child with spastic quadriplegia relates the process of arriving at the decision to utilize tube feeding via a surgically placed gastrostomy. (DB)

Results of the study involving 16 quadriplegic children (9 months-12 years old) indicated that early cognitive milestones can be achieved by children severely physically disabled since birth and that general intellectual level may be more important than severity of the motor handicap in determining such achievement. (Author/CL)

The exciting potential of Logo to free trapped intelligence in handicapped learners has been the subject of several years of research by the MIT Logo group. Uses of Logo with an autistic child and with a cerebral palsied child are discussed. (JN)

A 15-year-old with cerebral palsy who has experienced adjustment problems in a regular high school comes to talk with a counselor, as do her mother and father. The counselor notes the normal adolescent challenges and suggests ways the whole family can learn to communicate and support each other. (CL)

A specially adapted microcomputer has enabled a 15-year-old severely disabled girl with cerebral palsy to participate in a mainstreamed seventh-grade class. Her parents insisted that her individualized education program specify access to an in-school computer. (CL)