Abnormal Psychology

Childhood Disorders 631

of symptoms of mental retardation and possible comorbid disorders. In some cases,

treatment is designed to target signifi cant communication defi cits. Such treatment

may teach nonvocal communication, for example, using a technique called the Pic-

ture Exchange Communication System (PECS) (Bondy & Frost, 1994). With this

system, children learn to give a picture of the desired item to someone in exchange

for that item. Important elements of the program include learning to recognize

which picture corresponds to what is wanted (cognitive skill), going over to some-

one to give the picture (social skill), and responding appropriately to the question

“What do you want?” (social and communication skills).

Targeting Social Factors:

Accommodation in the Classroom—It’s the Law

With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 and the subse-

quent Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997, eligible children

with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21 are guaranteed special education

and related services that are individually tailored to the child’s needs, at no cost to

the parents. Each child with disabilities receives a comprehensive evaluation, and the

child is placed in the least restrictive environment that responds to his or her needs.

An individualized education program (IEP) specifi es educational goals as well as

supplementary services or products that should be used to help the student utilize

the regular curriculum.

For many children, one goal of the IEP is to facilitate inclusion—placing

students with disabilities in a regular classroom, with guidelines for any accom-

modations that the regular classroom teacher or special education teacher should

make. Note that mainstreaming is not the same as inclusion; mainstreaming simply

refers to placing a child with disabilities into a regular classroom, with no curricu-

lum adjustments to accommodate the disability. With inclusion, a child with mild

mental retardation placed in a regular classroom may take much longer than his or

her classmates to learn to read, and his or her reading fl uency will not be as high as

that of classmates. At school, such children may meet regularly with a speech and

language therapist and a reading and math specialist during periods when the rest

of the class is doing work that is beyond their ability.

Legal mandates have also brought people with mental retardation (and other

disabilities) out from the shadows of institutional living into society: Depending

on the severity of their retardation, they live in communities, hold jobs, and have

families.

With the Picture Exchange Communication Sys-

tem, a child who has mental retardation with poor

verbal communication skills can make his or her

desires known: The child presents a card with the

picture of the desired object to another person,

who then may give the actual object to the child.

Photo Courtesy of Pyramid Educational Consultants, Inc. reserves all rights to this photo

Inclusion
The placement of students with disabilities in
a regular classroom, with guidelines for any
accommodations that the regular classroom
teacher or special education teacher should
Paul Conklin/Photo Edit make.

P S

N

Like this girl with Down syndrome, youngsters

with mild to moderate mental retardation may

be placed in regular classrooms, either as part

of inclusion (in which the teacher makes specifi c

accommodations based on the child’s special

needs) or mainstreaming (in which the teacher

doesn’t make specifi c accommodations).