One of five booklets designed to help vocational education teachers and administrators relate more effectively to handicapped students in their classrooms, this booklet discusses the labeling dilemma to stress that the information presented is very general; general traits are outlined to characterize a group. In addition, the distinction between a…

The report describes research on the effects of labeling children from minority groups as retarded and includes a review of a system of multiculturalistic pluralistic assessment (SOMPA), an instrument for evaluating the abilities and potentialities of children based on different aspects of performance. Listed among findings of the Riverside study,…

Professionals in the educational field have recognized the special problems of the mentally retarded and since the early part of the 1950s have attempted to find out just how to intervene between the limitations of the retarded and the demands in the world of competitive work. Since some retarded individuals become competent employees while others…

This paper explores the detrimental effects that assumptions and labels have caused people with mental retardation and examines the concept of changing societal attitudes. The paper points out that: mental retardation has often been regarded not simply as one aspect of a person's life, but as engulfing the person's whole life and becoming that…

This paper presents the results of a study to investigate the effects of including an assessment of adaptive behavior, the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children (ABIC), in classifying students. Children in this study were either referred for or currently receiving special education services in a tri-ethnic district of 40,000 students. Three…

Examines differences between 45 learning disabled, mentally retarded, and Title I elementary students on intelligence, academic achievement, and behavior measures. Indicates that such students perform similarly on academic achievement and behavior measures. Learning disabled and Title I students were similar on an intelligence measure; mentally…

This report addresses these questions, and includes an analysis of nationally representative cognitive and achievement data to illustrate the dangers in making blanket assumptions about appropriate achievement expectations for individuals based on their cognitive ability or diagnostic label. In addition, a review of research on the achievement…

A practicum was conducted to evaluate and modify the educational expectations parents and educators perceived as appropriate for children with Down's Syndrome. The research effort took place after parents were told that their children would attend the local school for the mentally retarded because they exhibited Down's Syndrome. The objectives of…

Interviews with five people labelled as mentally retarded revealed that they recognized being "different" in terms of the labels applied to them by others, but they do not use those same labels when defining themselves or choosing their close friends. (Author/BJV)

"Mainstreaming" is defined as a program whereby handicapped children are placed in regular classrooms for all or part of the school day, with steps taken to see that their special needs are satisfied within this arrangement. Key court decisions are cited because the implications of mainstreaming for contemporary education can be properly…

A quasi-experimental design using student cases and non-random survey methods was used to investigate the influences of student educational labels, behaviors and learning characteristics as perceived by secondary career and technical education (CTE) instructors on occupational program expectations, modifications and accommodations, and…

Kindergarten and third-grade subjects (n=160) responded to videotape excerpts of children either with or without Down's Syndrome and with or without the label and description "mentally retarded." The subjects' affective evaluations, belief endorsements, and behavioral intentions were assessed, using the independent variables of grade, gender,…

This book is the product of a forum titled New Research Directions and Paradigms, held at the Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Mental Deficiency in Australia in August 1992. The book presents 13 chapters, all written within a critical paradigm for disability research which critiques the reification of…

The monograph describes the progress that has been made in exceptional child education in Alabama during the last decade and addresses needed areas of improvement. Brief sections focus on the following items: financing special education programs, instructional programing in local education agencies, individualized education plans, diagnosis of…