The authors evaluated human sexuality training programs at two California medical schools. In one program, students had no experience taking a sexual history. In the other, students were randomly assigned either to conduct or to observe a brief sexual history interview with a community volunteer. The students who conducted an interview showed more significant improvements in knowledge of human sexuality, perceived appropriateness of taking a sexual history and perceived personal skill in taking a sexual history than did the students who neither observed nor took a sexual history and also developed more critical views of practicing physicians' skills in taking such histories. The students who observed an interview improved more in knowledge and perceived personal skill than did the students who had no interview experience.
There is a nationwide need for psychologists to provide services for young (birth to 6 years) handicapped children. The challenge is for psychologists to ensure adequate and appropriate assessment and intervention for children who have developmental disabilities including emotional, cognitive, sensory, and physical handicaps. This article addresses three problem areas: First, who should provide these services? second, what clinical procedures are most appropriate? and third, how can adequate training be obtained? A recently developed training program is described.There has been a dramatic increase in early childhood programs and infant stimulation services during the past decade. A major reason for the proliferation of such new programs has been public recognition of the importance of identifying, educating, and treating developmentally handicapped children as early as possible. The increased public recognition of the need for early intervention for handicapped children has resulted in changes in federal legislation, the most significant of which has been the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-142). Significantly, for younger developmentally disabled children, P.L. 94-142 requires Child Find for all children from 3 to 6 years of age (some states, e.g., California and Michigan, also require coverage of children from birth to 3 years). Child Find mandates the provision of "related services" for assessment, placement, and preparation of individualized educational or treatment plans.The law specifies that nondiscriminatory evaluations and appropriate individualized educational plans be provided for every child identified as handicapped. Under the law, developmental handicaps include emotional disturbance, mental retardation, physical disabilities, and hearing and visual impairments. As Mowder (1979) has pointed out, one critical aspect on which the success of P.L. 94-142 depends is that valid assessments be performed by appropriately trained professionals.The role of the psychologist is to ensure that appropriate assessments of handicapped children are done and that the children's treatment programs meet their needs (Schaar, 1979). The problem is that very few psychologists have the clinical skills or training to assess children under 6 years of age who have the full range of disabilities. Several surveys have suggested a nationwide need for training psychologists to fulfill the service mandates of P.L. 94-142 (Bardon & Wenger, 1976;Mowder & Demartino, 1979; Ulrey & White, Note 1).The challenge for professional psychology is how to meet the increased demand and provide appropriate services for handicapped young children. Three major issues should be considered in addressing this challenge. The first is who should be responsible within the profession? Since there currently is no clearly defined specialty group within professional psychology that addresses the needs of young children with the full range of developmental disabilities, should those responsible be school psychologists, counselin...
This article describes a model for physician, educator, and parent collaboration in the management of children with developmental and behavioral disorders. The results of implementing the model with 256 professionals and parents of developmentally disabled children are described and discussed. The benefits of using the model in school districts and/or communities seeking to improve interprofessional collaboration and work with families are presented. The model has been demonstrated to be effective in producing practical solutions for improving collaboration that is relevant to local community barriers and based on input from physicians, educators, and parents.
A study was conducted to assess the effects of changing the length and regularity of the kindergarten school day on prereading skills, attending skills, and parental opinion of the program. Two rural Colorado school systems were studied in a matched control-comparison design, with the experimental groups attending a full-day, everyother-day program. Results indicated there were no significant differences between the groups on measures of school achievement and behavior. However, parental dissatisfaction appeared to increase in the experimental program. There is a need for further studies of altering the length of school days for establishing policies for kindergarten schedules.Requests for reprints should be sent to
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