David A. Sabatino

An Evaluation of the Teacher Consultant Model as an Approach to Mainstreaming

Two special education resource service models are contrasted for their effects on student achievement and on teacher and pupil behavior. Academic performance gains were equivalent for both models (teacher consultant and resource room), while teacher behaviors were judged slightly better under the teacher consultant model. Both approaches were superior to controls (no service). The parallel academic gains coupled with improved teacher behaviors suggest utility in having both models in operation within a continuum of services. The data support increased instruction in the regular classroom, thereby promoting many of the goals of mainstreaming through education in the least restrictive alternative, improved regular teacher skills, and attenuation of the effects of labeling.

Teacher Expectancies and the Label “Learning Disabilities”

This study investigates the teacher expectancies created by the term “learning disabled.” Two groups of 22 elementary grade teachers were shown a videotape recording of a normal fourth grade boy engaged in various activities. Prior to viewing the tape, the control group was told that the child was normal while the experimental group was told that the child was learning disabled. After the presentation both groups filled out referral forms for the child on the basis of the tape. The experimental group rated the child more negatively (p<.001) than did the control group. It was concluded that the label “learning disabled” generates negative expectancies in teachers which affect their objective observations of behavior and may be detrimental to the childs academic progress. It is suggested that a system of remediation be adopted that is not based on categories of disability but rather according to the needs of each child.

An Evaluation of Resource Rooms for Children with Learning Disabilities

This stydy explores the use of resource rooms as instructional centers for children with learing disabilities, and compares them to a selfcontained special class. The results of this study showed that some children with learning disabilities need the total teaching structure provided by a full days work in a special class. However, the majority of children with learning disabilities in this study achieved as well with daily visits of short duration to resource rooms as a matched group in special classes.

The Construction and Assessment of an Experimental Test of Auditory Perception.

The assessment of visual perception has become a very common means of studying those behaviors felt to be associated with neurological impairment. Visual perception is only one behavior that may be interfered with due to CNS impairment. The question of the relationship of auditory perceptual behaviors to visual perceptual function and neurological impairment frequently goes unanswered. The data from this study show that auditory and visual perception are abstract human behaviors. Auditory perception is a global complex set of behaviors that can be differentiated for assessment. The receptive language model and the Experimental Test of Auditory Perception (TAP) have shown an ability to differentiate neurologically impaired from normal (matched control) subjects.

Matching Learner Aptitude to Two Commercial Reading Programs

This study evaluated two commercially available curricula, the Sullivan Programmed Reading Series and the DISTAR Reading I Program. The major question was, can a curriculum material which is presented primarily through a specific perceptual modality increase academic achievement skills of children when matched to their strongest perceptual modality. An aptitude by treatment design with 77 educable mentally retarded children, grouped according to visual and auditory perceptual strength, failed to yield any significant interactions.

Prescriptive Teaching in a Summer Learning Disabilities Program

The prevention and treatment of chronic failure has been a serious problem since the beginning of the American educational system. The intent of this study was to examine the academic achievement and changes in behavior related to a specified kind of curriculum during a six-week summer program. A unisensory perceptual training curriculum was selected in order to utilize the childs strongest perceptual area at the beginning of training, while weaker perceptual areas were avoided initially. Emphasis was on utilizing language cues as a compensatory behavior to strengthen perceptual deficits. The program was designed to alter the “learning sets“ and to modify the behaviors of children with learning disability manifested in chronic failure.

Variation in Information Processing Behaviors: As Related to Chronological Age Differences for Children Failing in the Elementary Grades

The intent of this study was to determine the behavioral differences in information processing between children failing in the elementary grades who are of primary school age and those of intermediate school age. The data showed that similar factorial clusters appeared for both subject age groups, but that the levels of loading were different. The difference between the principal components for the subject groups occurred for perceptual behaviors and not language behaviors. The implication is that prescriptive teaching techniques will need to be selected on the basis of both the age and compensatory behavioral strengths of the children.

Behavioral sequelae of California encephalitis virus infection in children.

An extensive psychological study was made on 14 children after their hospitalisation for California Encephalitis Virus infection. The behavioral examination was made between 7 months and 2 years after the initial hospital admittance and on routine clinical examination the children appeared to be functioning normally. This is in sharp contrast with the picture they presented when in hospital, with high fever, seizures and severe headaches, and when some were comatose or semi‐comatose.

A Policy Study of P. L. 94–142:

The study sought to determine the “level of consciousness” of selected regular and special educators for 50 competing educational policy statements. Fifty of the most frequently occurring policy items were selected, 20 arising as key concepts of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94–142), intermingled with 30 of the most pressing issues drawn from the current regular (general) and vocational education literature. A Q-sort procedure required 199 general and special education teachers and administrators to prioritize the general and special education policy items, sorting them according to their importance. A discriminant functions analysis disclosed that respondents could be correctly classified as special or regular educators with 68% accuracy (cross-validated) on the basis of their level of consciousness for 11 P.L. 94–142 policy items. Special education administrators demonstrated the highest level of consciousness, general education administrators the lowest, and teachers the middle range.

Teacher-Mom Intervention with Academic High-Risk Preschool Children

Editors Note: The journal receives many more manuscripts of interest and worth than space permits publishing in full. This department, In Brief, will present shortened versions of some articles as recommended by associate editors. Authors have agreed to furnish interested readers with full copies of the papers if requested. The full length article must have been submitted for review and the author(s) will prepare the Briefs. GJW