GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES IN "PROGRAMMING" FOR SEVERELY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

Abstract

Developing programs for severely handicapped persons has become the challenging responsibility of educators. While it would be foolhardy to insist that educators alone can or should implement programs designed for severely handicapped persons, this fact remains: As a result of recent legislative mandates, court decisions, and accompanying social trends for change, educators are now on the front line in efforts to change centuries of neglect and mismanagement of severely handicapped persons. And they are the only professionals required by law to be there. If the challenge is immense, so are its attractions. It would be hard to imagine a more interesting set of problems to try to solve or questions to address. We have purposely chosen to use the term "program" in this paper since it emphasizes both the process and the content required in planning classes for severely handicapped pupils. "Programming" as a process requires, first, the application of principles which may be as old as time but which were first formally articulated earlier in this century and, interestingly, which were applied as long as two decades ago to the instruction of institutionalized severely handicapped persons. As educators have become more experienced in teaching severely handicapped children, they have become aware that the increased precision made possible by systematic arrangement of instructional cues, following the principles of programmed instruction, has powerfully increased the effectiveness of the instruction of these children and young adults. Second, in applying these principles to educational programming in classrooms rather than in institutions, it is necessary to expand traditional practices extensively. For instance, in our curricula, we now need to include behaviors which have rarely before been included in "school" curricula, behaviors which may occur in infancy, including respondents. Moreover, there is now an additional person with a significant role in the classroom-the parent.