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Operant Conditioning Works
A boy with severe disabilities is coaxed and taught to raise his hand for the reward of warm sugar-milk. Though not in a school setting, the method was proved to be an effective strategy for individuals with low cognitive ability. -
Separate is NOT Equal
Landmark Case File The Supreme Court rules that all children deserve a free and appropriate public education and that "separate is not equal." Many in special education feel that this ruling has yet to be applied to those children with disabilities who are largely educated segregrated from their peers without disabilities. -
Education for AllHandicapped Children Act, P. L. 94-142, 1975
Legacy of IDEAAlso known as IDEA. Children with disabilities were first given the right to a free and appropriate education. Children without disabilities had already been afforded this right for many years. -
The Lovaas Lab
Read what it was like to work with Dr. Ivar Lovaas:Lovaas begins using behavior analysis to teach social and communication skills to children with Autism. -
Lou Brown
Lou Brown introduces the idea that children with disabilities ought to be learning functional skills relative to their needs and chronological age. -
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The Proof is in the Pudding
Over these two decades various researchers, using Applied Behavior Analysis techniques, proved that individuals with severe cognitive and other disabilities were capable of learning any number of important and useful skills. These skills range from dressing and preparing meals to gaining employment and performing job-based skills. -
Shaping and Fading Begins
Special Educators begin working to select careful and appropriate behavioral targets and to systematically shape behaviors and fade prompts. They also begin to move this process from teacher-centered to more naturally-occuring stimuli. -
NCLB 2001
The No Child Left Behind Act finally holds educators and schools responsible for educating children with disabilities. They are now expected to teach these students all academic subject areas taught to typical students. -
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Where Now?
Researchers, cognizant of the shifting expectations from teaching strictly functional skills to teaching academics as well, begin looking into the best ways to teach academic subjects to children with disabilities.
