Project Special Friend, a reverse mainstreaming program in which elementary school volunteers worked with severely retarded students, is described. After one year the program was found to have increased the social awareness of the retarded students and given the volunteers a much better understanding of their handicapped peers' problems and…

This paper describes Project ASSIST, an early intervention pilot project involving 40 Singaporean infants with disabilities (ages 2-5) that integrated children with mild disabilities into mainstream preschool centers. Results indicated high levels of peer and school personnel acceptance and the feasibility of integrating children with disabilities…

This article describes an Irish video program that prepares mainstream students to meet incoming peers with severe, profound, and multiple disabilities, finding that students reacted positively to the video and found it helped relieve their anxieties at the prospect of contact. Implications for further development of structured contact sessions in…

Describes the metropolitan Nashville Peer Buddy Program, a high school program that attempts to remove scheduling barriers to inclusion by providing daily class times in which participating general-education and special-education students may interact. Seven steps to starting a peer-buddy program are provided. (CR)

A program in Quincy, Massachusetts, is designed to teach nonhandicapped fourth grade students to understand what it is like to have a handicap. The six 45-minute units include an introductory puppet presentation as well as units on physical disabilities, mental retardation, learning disabilities, visual handicaps, and deafness. Puppets provide…

This paper stresses the need for sex education in the schools, to complement what may be learned in the home or church. Due to negative community pressure, the youth service field has often hesitated to introduce such programs. Evidence is presented that there may be less opposition to sex education programs for the handicapped. An attempt to…

A Massachusetts school faced with low teacher and student morale as a result of severe budget cuts initiated a year-long competitive program to improve school morale. The program was successful and virtually cost-free. (MD)

The psychological aspects of a child's reaction to major burn injuries include acute emotional reactions resulting from upsetting reactions of family members and unfamiliar hospital surroundings. Emotional and social adjustment problems of severely scarred children are viewed, and suggestions are made as to what health professionals might do to…

With the help of experts and resources from several departments, a high school developed a course in health education. Designed specifically for ninth-graders, the course presents activity-based instruction on topics of fitness and nutrition, substance abuse, stress management, and human relations. (JN)

Children who have reading disabilities are prone to become emotionally maladjusted due to the humiliation of poor reading ability and the anxiety over gaining peer approval. Adding to the child's problems are negative parental reactions. Suggestions for remedies are given. (JN)

This article describes a high school club for students with and without disabilities that was established to promote constructive social relationships through an after-school club format and to develop students' self-confidence, social acceptance, and peer interaction opportunities. The membership, meetings, officers, and activities of the club…

This paper describes Gordon Allport's contact theory (which contrasts effects of casual contact and contact leading to acquaintanceship) and the findings of social integration research. Theories are applied to fostering true social integration of hearing-impaired students being educated in mainstream settings. Educators are urged to maximize…

An early childhood special education program to foster appreciation of diversity is described. Suggestions are offered for ways to use books and activities to celebrate diversity. Sociograms before and after the program indicated improved attitudes by most children toward peers of diverse colors, cultures, and backgrounds. (DB)

This article describes a special education preschool program that included four children without disabilities to serve as peer models to the eight children with disabilities. Results indicate that the peer models made a positive contribution to the program, as measured by their interactions with children with disabilities. (Contains references.)…

The author contends that the topical content of ESL lesson materials in schools and universities is of ethical significance. Based on an established model for ethical judgment in social services, five guidelines for ethical selection of lesson topics are proposed and illustrated. Lesson topics must help ESL students: (a) adjust to local…