This article critically comments on previous articles that question the benefits of inclusion for students with severe disabilities. It argues for the inclusion of students with disabilities and suggests that functionality is not found in segregated classes but in one's thoughtful immersion into the complexity of community. (Contains references.)…

Investigated whether the coping framework developed with younger adults with schizophrenia could be applied to people over 50 with schizophrenia. Results indicated that coping strategies used by older people were similar to those of younger populations. However, it was reported that efficacy of coping strategies had increased as participants had…

Older adults are the largest group of wheelchair users yet there are no peer-reviewed studies on the national profile of older wheelchair users in Canada. We investigated the characteristics of wheelchair users in a national sample of community-dwelling older adults from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA-2). Questions on the use of…

This update discusses the "Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign," a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation that exists to bring the issues of prisoner reentry to greater public awareness. The U.S. Department of Education has been charged with administering the "Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners Program," a discretionary grant program…

In this update, Linton discusses the role of educational programs within correctional institutions. These programs normally receive varying degrees of support from state to state, but two exceptions are the federally administered Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners Program and the Grants to States for Workplace and Community Transition…

We evaluated the use of a video prompting procedure for teaching three adults with developmental disabilities to make popcorn using a microwave oven. Training, using a 10-step task analysis, was conducted in the kitchen of the participant's vocational training program. During baseline, participants were instructed to make popcorn, but were given…

This article discusses ways in which classroom teachers can use "life skill" games to facilitate classroom management by giving student opportunities to practice desirable behaviors. There is also usually a reduction in behavior problems when children are allowed to occasionally move. In addition, research has demonstrated that periodic movement…

A program evaluation was completed for a Virtual Reality (VR) pilot project intended to aid deaf children in learning various life skills which they may be at risk of not adequately learning. Such skills include crossing the street safely, exiting a building during a fire drill, and avoiding situations in which strangers may harm them. The VR was…

This article is the second in a three-part series that provides data from interviews of 162 adult subjects aged 60 and older who stopped driving due to a visual impairment. Part Two describes the availability and use of different forms of transportation, ways subjects access transportation to carry out daily activities, subjects' experiences with…

On the last day of school in June 2002, the author received her class list for the following year: five girls ranging in age from 12 to 15 years old. Their disabilities included retinopathy of prematurity, encephalitis, Laurence-Moon-Biedl syndrome, cerebral palsy, dyslexia, hearing impairment, cortical visual impairment, and significant…

Cumberland Valley High School, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, added a modular technology laboratory as part of a recent innovation. The course that is taught in the lab runs throughout the year, and students spend 15 days at each of 10 modular stations. Between rotations, the author presents five-day projects that give the students a break from the…

A cross-sequential design was used to examine changes related to aging in adults with and without Down syndrome (ns = 55 and 75, respectively). Adults received yearly neuropsychological and medical evaluations. Support for precocious aging in adults with Down syndrome was evident only on a test of verbal fluency, with weaker support obtained on a…

"Picture Exchange Communication System" (PECS) training was implemented with 5 nonspeaking adults with mental retardation who were not currently using any type of functional communication system. A modified ABAB, single-subject design was used to assess the effectiveness of PECS in enhancing the functional communication skills of these…

This study reports on an assessment system for school-leavers with disabilities to identify their capacity for work and the type of transition-to-work programme best suited to each person. Participants were 1,556 high school students in four cohorts who left school between 1999 and 2002. Each school-leaver was assessed by rehabilitation…

This article discusses the features of Career Decision-Making Tool (CDMT), a new online tool from America's Career Resource Network (ACRN) that seeks to help students figure out how to get the education and skills they need to prosper as workers, citizens, and family members. CDMT is based on a cognitive model developed by Florida State University…