Robert and Denise Sedlak are noted for their work with mentally retarded young people. Teaching the Educable Mentally Retarded combines their training and experience to create an invaluable resource for both the practicing and beginning teacher of mildly retarded students. Practical suggestions, case studies, and real-life anecdotes are interwoven with research findings. The result is an up-to-date, comprehensive guide to handling the expected and unexpected situations teachers confront in the classroom. The book incorporates current trends in education, featuring sections on the use of instructional aides in the classroom and on the use of computers and other teaching technology in special education classes. The authors' style is clear and easy to follow, and the work is enhanced through the copious use of charts and figures.

This eight-year study of an American city traces the answer to the question "Who is retarded?" by analyzing the labeling process in a large number of community agencies. Data for the study are drawn from a representative sample of 7,000 persons under fifty years of age who were tested ans screened for "symptoms" of mental retardation. The author finds that that schools label more persons as mentally retarded than any other agency and share their labels more widely with others in the community. Relying on IQ test scores for diagnosis, schools place many persons with scores above 70 and with no physical disabilities in the role of retardate. The author contends that both the statistical model of "normal" and the unicultural viewpoint of educators and clinicians work to the disadvantage of the poor and the ethnic minorities. Given the opportunity, many persons demonstrate by their ability to cope with the problems in other areas of life that they are not comprehensively incompetent. The author makes serval policy recommendations. First, she suggests lowering the IQ score cutoff point used by schools in determining who shall be labeled as retarded. Second, she recommends that the clinicians use the two-dimensional definition of retardation proposed by the American Association of Mental Deficiency, subnormality in both intellectual performance and adaptive behavior. Third, she concludes that pluralistic assessment procedures must be employed to take into account cultural biases in IQ tests designed to measure cognitive skills. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.

This unequaled, all-encompassing collection of international programs on special education will enable educators worldwide to investigate special education practice within its social context to enhance their own initiatives with new ideas.Comparative Studies divides into five sections, each with an introduction to the chapters within. This thorough text begins with limited special education in such venues as South Africa, and Senegal. Section Two addresses emerging special education in Nigeria, Brazil, and several other locales. Segregated special education in Japan, Russia, and other countries makes up Section Three, and Section Four explores countries that are approaching integration, such as Poland and Australia. Integrated special education is described in Scandinavia, New Zealand, and other nations in the final section.More than 50 noted scholars have contributed to this important work, offering every involved student and practitioner an indispensable, detailed frame of reference in which to assess education programs worldwide for all special populations -- blind, deaf, physically and mentally disabled, and all others.