The Literature on the effects of segregated vs. integrated school experience for mildly intellectually handicapped children is considered in the light of four questions: (1) What is the effect upon the person of being labelled and segregated? (2) Does segregation provide a better learning experience? (3) Does segregation provide for better social and emotional adjustment? and (4) What alternatives are available? In general, the literature supports the view that integration is more desirable both in terms of intellectual and emotional gain.

In this paper, first published in the ‘pilot edition’ of the Australian Journal of Special Education, Dr. Gardner looks at one aspect of Special Education, the possible deleterious effects of special placement on the child. The vexed issues of segregation and labelling are investigated carefully and fully and conclusions are drawn from the research. A number of currently fashionable alternatives are summarised and the article concludes with the oft-heard plea for well-organized and comprehensive research into special education services in Australia.

This paper describes the programme of an open area learning centre for children with specific learning disabilities. Ninety-five regular school children between the ages of seven and eleven attend the part time remedial centre. An overview of innovative developments within the programme, centre services, modular scheduling, learning stations and programme procedures are discussed. Also mentioned is the implementation of co-operative community efforts and interaction and an interdisciplinary approach designed to provide maximal impact on the education of the children enrolled in the learning centre.

It we are serious in our attempts to develop ‘special instructional techniques’ in Special Education, we cannot afford to overlook the potential value of the ‘Behaviour Modification’ approach. Dr. Clunies-Ross summarizes the major features of the theory, relates the theory to teaching and challenges us with the assertion that while there appears to be ample evidence of the value of the approach in educational programmes for the mentally retarded overseas, “only very limited and isolated attempts” have been made to incorporate this approach in ‘special’ organizations in this country.

The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test was administered to secondary school students, and experimental group teachers were informed of results. A dyadic interaction analysis of teacher questions, categorized on the operations dimension of Guilford’s Structure of the Intellect, was recorded in experimental and control classes. Analysis, using ANOVA, suggests teachers interact differently with students who have visual motor difficulties (despite not having these children explicitly identified) than they do with ‘normal’ children. The data further suggest teacher knowledge of the prescence of some children with visual motor difficulties affects the type of question teachers ask of all students in their classroom.

When examining the literature for Special Education instructional techniques, one inevitably encounters references to Precision Teaching. Ms Goninan attempts to define the concept and illustrate its applicability to the teaching of reading. While the classroom teacher would need more information on the operation of the strategy than provided in this paper, the major components of the technique are discussed and some important research conclusions regarding the teaching of reading, particularly reading comprehension, are reported.

This paper examines a number of studies from England, America and Australia, that deal with the attainment of literacy. Methods of stimulating literacy interest of mildly and moderately retarded children have been developed by the author. The paper concludes with a statement of the author’s belief that the road to literacy is achieved through the manipulation of a number of task dimensions.

In the first paper in this volume, Jim Gardner called for more local research. This paper, a report on a research programme which looks at the effects of motor programmes on children’s reading and spelling improvement, is an answer to that plea. The researchers, using three types of movement programmes, draw useful conclusions on the value of such an approach in the improvement of reading and spelling skills in the children studied.

This section is designed to provide readers with the opportunity to read about various ‘special centres’ which are providing a service to our exceptional children. It is likely that this feature could promote quite useful interchange of ideas as well as possibilities for communication between centres where personnel have mutual interests.