Educators currently in senior positions in our public education and training institutions experienced school as children in a New Zealand society very different from 1987. In theirprofessional careers, they have witnessed some staggering changes to which they have had to adjust.

The purpose of this presentation is to trace the development of early educational intervention in the United States as a means to prevent intellectual and social retardation. It is meant primarily to summarize the value and effects of such programs and to urge their continued use and development as a primary prevention strategy and a valuable treatment approach to assist children at risk and to encourage families to seek services for handicapped children at the earliest age.

In this paper a model of teachers’ attitudes to integrating children with moderate learning difficulties into ordinary classrooms is described. The basis of this model is an AID analysis described in a previous paper (Thomas, 1986) and an analysis of the spontaneous comments of teachers in unstructured interviews. The sample consisted of 550 teachers in Tucson, Arizona and Devon, U.K. drawn from primary, secondary and special schools and advisory services. From the data of the unstructured interviews, four factors, not mentioned in the earlier paper, are included in the model. These are: traumatic experiences with the handicapped, class size, the what-happened-yesterday factor and leadership. Some implications of the model, the generality of the findings and suggestions for future are included in the discussion.

A survey of the prevalence and needs of exceptional students was carried out in Queensland Catholic primary (n = 195) and secondary (n = 40) schools. Within the overall population surveyed 3.13% possessed disabilities, 3.83% behavioural difficulties, 4.19% advanced learning characteristics, and 12.80% learning difficulties. The survey indicated that support services fell short of the demand, particularly for students with behavioural difficulties and those considered to be advanced learners. The data obtained was of the same order as that found in other state, national and international studies. The majority of principals and teachers interviewed held positive attitudes towards integration. However, this was qualified by a strong press for additional professional support, inservice training, and resources to enable the necessary enhancement of the educational experiences being offered. The survey identified a continuing need for communication and cooperation with state and private agencies and the desirability of developing a system which marshalls the available resources, both regular and special, into an efficient and feasible service delivery operation.

This paper will address issues associated with the use of suspension and exclusion as an intervention for dealing with disruptive behaviour in schools, with a particular focus on secondary students in Western Australia. There is increasing support for the view that many of the students suspended or excluded from school for disruptive behaviour may be socially/emotionally handicapped and as such are being denied access to an appropriate education on the basis of their handicapping condition. The legal and service delivery implications of this position are discussed within the context of current Australian special education policy and international agreements pertaining to the educational rights of children.

In his play The Life of Galileo Bertolt Brecht (1963) identifies the need for lateral approaches to problem solving. This is achieved when Andrea attempts to infuse hope in the shrunken character of his teacher Galileo, who has recanted his astronomical discoveries to the church inquisitors. Andrea provides wise counsel for those confronting the problem of disruptive behaviour in schools. He reminds Galileo that:

This article summarizes recent research on effective classroom management practices that teachers can use to enhance learning and to prevent, or at least minimize, the occurrence of misbehaviour. Suggestions for creating and maintaining an appropriate climate for learning are discussed. Strategies that are particularly effective in teaching mildly handicapped students are emphasized and procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of one’s management practices are discussed.

Children and young persons with severe behavioural disorders are attracting an increasing amount of political attention and publicity due to the disruption which many of them cause in community and educational settings. In this paper the authors examine definitions of behavioural disorders and summarize recent literature in the area. Other issues raised relate to prevalence data, and the apparent growth of the problem of disruption, the stability of behavioural disorders across time into adolescence and adulthood, and the increase in stress in teachers attributable to the presence of children with behavioural disorders in schools. Management approaches are described which hold promise of alleviating the problem for pupils, teachers and the wider community.

This paper investigates, in an Australian context, the psychometric properties of reliability and construct validity of a scale to measure the attitudes of teachers toward the integration of handicapped children into regular schools. The responses of a sample of 301 primary school staff were factor analysed to determine the factorial validity of the 30-item scale. The scale was found to have an underlying conceptual framework of five factors, which could be used to investigate various aspects of a teacher’s attitude toward integration. The psychometric characteristics of the scale indicate that it is both reliable and factorially valid in an Australian context and that it is valid to make comparisons between American and Australian data using the scale.

This study was conducted to identify the strengths and needs of deaf adults as parents of 7–18 year old hearing children. A cross sectional, descriptive design was used to gather data from a convenience sample of nineteen pairs of deaf parents and their hearing children. The Parental Strengths and Needs Inventory was administered to children in written form and to their parents in sign language via videotape along with structured interviews. Contrary to anecdotal reports about his family constellation, total and subset scores for both groups revealed above average parental success. Comparison of parents’ and children’s scores on parallel forms of the instrument indicated no significant differences, this supporting validity of parents’ scores. Interview responses compared with the content of PSNI revealed that deaf parents share the concerns of normal hearing parents but had additional concerns specific to deafness not addressed by the instrument.

The task of providing employment opportunities for students and adults with an intellectual disability is a difficult one. One of the more promising approaches is based on the supported competitive employment programs developed in the United States, particularly at the University of Washington (Rusch, 1986). In this section outlines of two Australian programs are provided as examples of the supported competitive employment approach. Full reports of both programs were provided in papers delivered at the 1987 AASE National Conference in Melbourne, by Phil Tuckerman and Jennifer Green.

The Community Options Program Employment (COPE) Project, was initiated in October 1985 by the Consultant for Students with Intellectual and/or Physical Disabilities at Blacktown College of TAFE (New South Wales Department of Technical and Further Education). It is a cooperative program in on-site training and competitive employment support, for workers with an intellectual disability.