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Special Education for the Mentally Retarded
Special Education for the Mentally Retarded G. ORVILLE JOHNSON, Ed.D.
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Special education for the mentally retarded has been assigned the role of being able to provide all the answers leading to the achievement of the hopes and aspirations of many parents of mentally retarded children. This feeling has largely developed during the past two decades, although the seeds were planted over a century ago. Much of it is undoubtedly due to the initial attitudes that immigrants brought with them to the United States. Here was a country of limitless opportunity, and anyone could achieve anything through education. Thus the son of a coal miner, steel worker, or wheat farmer could become a physician, lawyer, or school teacher through education. And, more often than not it appeared to be accomplished. As a result, when parents were faced with the prospect of having to provide permanent custodial care for a severely mentally retarded child, or feared that a mildly mentally retarded child would never be able to achieve the place they desired for him in society, education was inevitably sought out to provide the panacea or cure. This usually occurred, however, only after medicine had been unable to do so. A consideration of the education of the mentally retarded involves providing the answers to a number of questions. What is education for the mentally retarded? How does it differ from general education? What are its objective or purposes? What can we realistically expect to accomplish? Each discipline operates within a conceptual framework compatible with its perceptions and consequent treatment of a problem. Each also develops its own vocabulary or unique connotations associated with common terms that are in general usage. Since mental retardation is an all-pervasive condition that affects all the relationships and activities of the individual, it is within the concerns of law, medicine, biochemistry,
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Chainnan, Faculty of Education of Exceptional Children, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Pediatric Clinics of North America-Vol. 15, No.4, November, 1968
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economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and education. While the same terminology may be used by persons concerned with these several areas of science and behavior, they raise different ideas and concepts in the minds of each. The educator is an applied psychologist in the best sense of the term. He is fundamentally interested in learning and behavior. His function is not one of cure or of increasing intelligence (I.Q.), but to educate the intelligence, so that each person becomes as effective and intelligent as possible. Rather like a coach who through training and conditioning can help an athlete jump higher or run faster, he helps children strengthen their intelligence and learn to use it more efficiently and effectively. In order to accomplish this, he must understand how persons learn, under what conditions learning takes place most efficiently, why persons behave as they do, and what he can do that will cause a person to behave in such a fashion that he can achieve his goals, but so that his behavior will be acceptable to society.
EDUCATIONAL LEVELS AMONG THE MENTALLY RETARDED
For educational purposes, the mentally retarded are divided into four broad categories: (1) the severely mentally retarded, who can learn so little that they will require rather complete, intensive custodial care for their entire lives; (2) the trainable mentally retarded, who can learn sufficient skills, attitudes, and information to become semiindependent socially and as a consequence can remain in the community for as long as they have a parent or guardian who can give them the essential direction and supervision they require; ( 3 ) the educable mentally retarded, who have the potential for personal, social, and economic independence; and (4) slow learners, who generally have not been considered sufficiently handicapped to require special education. No definitive or accurate census data are or ever will become available on the incidence of mental retardation. The reason for this is that the concept of mental retardation is a comparative rather than an absolute one. There are no absolute measures of intelligence or intellectual behavior. A person is bright or dull only by comparison. For example, the "high-grade" mentally retarded patients in an institution consider themselves superior and smart as compared to the '10w-grade." As a result, the number of the mentally retarded depends entirely upon the definitions used and the cut-off points selected. The estimates that are available in terms of the educational definitions given, however, appear to be sufficiently accurate for planning purposes. Approximately 0.5 per cent of the population falls into the lowest two categories (the severely mentally retarded and the trainable mentally retarded). Among school-age children, two fifths of these will be severely mentally retarded.
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In the remaining three fifths (the trainable mentally retarded), one third will have been committed to institutions at an early age, while the remaining two thirds will reside at home for extended periods. These more severe forms of mental retardation appear to be no respecter of race, creed, color or social class, although the lower and upper social classes tend to institutionalize their children more readily (in public and private institutions, respectively). As a result the majority of the trainable mentally retarded continuing to reside in the community and thus eligible for special education come from middle class families. This situation, however, is gradually changing to include more and more children from the lower social class as the number of educational facilities increases and the role of the. residential institution changes. A rather arbitrary delineation has been made in regard to the educable mentally retarded and the slow learners. The bottom 3 per cent of the population (excluding the lowest 0.5 per cent) have been designated as educable mentally retarded, with the next 17 or 18 per cent termed slow learners. Here social class plays an extremely important role. In the upwardly mobile members of the lower social class and the middle and upper classes, the incidence of· educable mental retardation is about 0.5 per cent, while in the lowe~ social class the incidence is 12 to 15 per cent. The same phenoirien~ri is true for the slow learners. Here the incidence within the middle and upper social classes is 3 to 5 per cent, while within the lower social class it is 35 to 40 per cent. One word of caution or explanation must be given at this point. While the educator is interested in intelligence and the educational designations are, to a large degree, based- upon intelligence, there is no innate or absolute measure. Rather, the educator is interested in functional or behavioral intelligence: "This is how this child behaves or performs at the present time, so this is what he is now." No commitment is made that this is the way in which he will behave in the future; only the child himself, his growth and development, and what he learns will determine that. Most children will continue to develop at much the same rate, but for some, dramatic changes will occur and are to be expected. The problem is that there is no known method of preselecting these children. Therefore a cure of the problem or condition is not the objective of programs for the mentally retarded, even though a cure (if it can rightfully be called that) will occasionally happen.
PROGRAM PLANNING FOR THE MENTALLY RETARDED
The planning of an educational program for children, including the mentally retarded, requires the consideration of three basic factors: the characteristics of the child; as accurate an estimate as possible of his future, eventual abilities, and role; and the psychosocial and physical
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environment in which he is living. Knowing his psychological and physical characteristics is essential in planning experiences that are within his abilities to learn and cope. His potential future role in the society and economy enables the planner to design a program that is realistic in terms of appropriate objectives. The final ingredient, knowledge of the physical and psychosocial environment, provides the information upon which meaningful educational experiences can be built. The Trainable Mentally Retarded The following discussion is not meant to be exhaustive, only indicative of how the previously mentioned factors will be taken into consideration in program planning by the teacher. The characteristics of the trainable mentally retarded, as the educator sees the children, are as follows: 1. They have very limited learning potential, operating intellectually at one fourth to one half the level of average children their age. 2. Their rate of intellectual development will be at one fourth to one half the rate normally expected in children. 3. The level and rate of intellectual development cannot be significantly changed by an early education program. 4. Among trainable mentally retarded children there will be an inordinately large number with major physical disabilities, minor motor incoordinations, and sensory handicaps. 5. Their speech and language development will be at the level of their mental ages. In addition, there will be many who have other speech difficulties due to the higher incidence of physical and motor factors. 6. They will often be behaving at a level significantly lower than their abilities levels, due to parental overprotection.
The trainable mentally retarded have a future potential of being able to adjust only to a custodial, protected environment and learning to make some contribution within the confines of that environment. Most of them will remain in the community, living at home, until they are adults. Upon the completion of school, approximately one fourth of them will be committed to institutions. The remainder will be committed gradually over the ensuing years, until practically none of them will still be at home by the age of 45. None of them will be capable of earning their own living, except within a very protected work setting, nor will they be able to direct their own affairs in society. The important environmental influences of the trainable mentally retarded are the home and immediate neighborhood. It is within this restricted area that they will be able to operate. In the future, their environment, in all probability, will be a public residential facility. The Program. The program for the trainable mentally retarded (taking into consideration the three defined influencing factors) can be divided into three broad phases-early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. The early childhood program has an immediate objec-
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tive of enabling the child to cope effectively with the demands of his specific physical and psychosocial environment. Thus, there is a strong emphasis upon self-help skills (dressing, eating, using the toilet, keeping clean, etc.), social skills (getting along with other children and adults, cooperation, orderliness, table manners, etc.), communications skills (speech development, speech improvement, language development, etc.) and physical and motor skills ( strength, endurance, gross and fine coordination, etc.). Since these children are often highly overprotected, their abilities in these areas tend to be abnormally limited, but susceptible to initial rapid improvement. The teacher must be careful to start at the child's behavioral level and then push him as rapidly as possible. In about one year most of the deficit will have been made up, and thereafter the rate of improvement will slow down to the rate of intellectual development. It is obvious from the previous discussion that a regular kindergarten or nursery school program has little or nothing to offer trainable mentally retarded children. First, the program is too mature for their level of development. Second, the nature of the activities is not appropriate for their educational needs. Third, they have nothing in common with the other children, have no peers, and consequently can derive no benefit from the available social contacts. The program at the middle childhood level is a continuation of the early childhood curriculum, with emphasis on the same skills and attitudes for those children who are new in the program or have not developed sufficiently in the areas covered. From there, the emphasis changes in the self-help area to limited kinds of contribution activities (making beds, dusting, setting table, care of and putting away clothing). The social skills area should expand with the children's maturity and ability to deal with more complex kinds of social settings. Oral communication activities should continue to be stressed, with emphasis upon time, sequence, and completeness of detail in addition to those skills mentioned for the early childhood level. Reading as such is not included in the program, although the recognition and understanding of certain signs may be introduced for safety and protection purposes. A continued emphasis upon physical and motor activities should be planned, since the problems found at the early childhood level will not have been completely corrected or improved to the extent possible. Programs for the adolescent trainable mentally retarded have not been as well developed as those for the early and middle childhood levels. Here the terminal aspects of the training experiences are stressed. enabling the children to leave the school with their attitudes and competencies as fully developed as possible. They should be able to take their place within the limited environment they are capable of dealing with. As children mature, their characteristics deviate more and more
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widely from one another, so the specific experience provided them at this level must become more and more highly individualized. For example, those children who approach the capabilities of the educable mentally retarded should be provided with selected occupational experiences of an unskilled, general nature. In this way, if the opportunity becomes available in a protected workshop or a business controlled by a family friend or relative, they will be able to perform at an acceptable level. For most, however, learning to contribute within the protected environment of the home or an institution is most appropriate. Meanwhile, the least able will continue to learn to take care of their personal needs, thus requiring less care and immediate supervision and releasing the parents or attendants for other activities. Training Environment. There has been a general trend to place the trainable mentally retarded in regular elementary schools, and occasionally in secondary schools, over the past decade or two. In terms of the objectives of the programs, there is little to justify this practice. The trainable mentally retarded have little in common with the children enrolled in general education or other special education programs. There is relatively little in the way of similarity of educational experiences, interests or abilities. Since the other children of the school are not their peers, there is little in the way of meaningful social experience that can be provided naturally. Finally, the space, equipment, and instructional materials needs of the classes for the trainable mentally retarded are not normally found in a regular school building. The most effective educational environments, as a result, are specially designed separate facilities. Methodology. The methodology that has been found to be most effective with trainable mentally retarded children is simple conditioning for the younger and intellectually less mature ones. Much of what young children do, as well as their modes of behavior, is largely habitual-washing, brushing teeth, buttoning, tying, and so forth. Operant conditioning techniques have been found to be excellent in the formation of the routine use of these. Further, activities should be designed so as to closely resemble the basic characteristics of the environment or situation in which those activites are and will be used. This provides for the use of a simple transfer of identical elements rather than requiring an abstract understanding and transfer of principle. Sign reading and recognition should be taught in relation to the type of sign used, placed either in appropriate places or in conjunction with contrived, lifelike situations. Home environments (kitchen, living room, bedroom) should be an integral part of the school environment, in order that home activities may be taught in appropriate relationship to use. Thus the program, the educational environment, and the techniques or methods used are integrally related to each other for effective and efficient achievement of the objectives of the program.
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The Educable Mentally Retarded The educable mentally retarded have a potential of social and economic independence in the general society as adults. They are capable of earning a living, primarily in the unskilled and semiskilled job areas, although 15 to 20 per cent of them will probably be able to perform adequately in the skilled trades if properly educated. They will be able to handle their wages intelligently enough to require a minimum of support from welfare agencies. In addition, they will be able to deal with most of their social problems independently, although as a group they will require a disproportionate amount of attention from various family and social agencies. Most educable mentally retarded children will come from lower class families-which is actually to their advantage. Their parents will not have unrealistic aspirations for them, and consequently they and their families will tend to be satisfied with the kinds of work they can do and the levels of jobs they can obtain. Those educable mentally retarded children who are born to middle and upper class families are in many ways far less fortunate. These parents often disable them to a greater degree than does the mental retardation, in that their aspirations for their children are far too high. Often they will not permit the children to perform the jobs of which they are capable-refusing to let them accept the job. They would rather keep them in their homes, so that they may continue to live "in the manner to which they are accustomed." Eventually many of these children must be cared for in institutions as a result of this earlier treatment and care. The Program. The following program is specifically designed for the educable mentally retarded who have lower social backgrounds. A somewhat similar program could be described for those who come from middle class homes with the addition of a continuous, parallel parent guidance and counseling program essential to the achievement of appropriate goals. The program is divided into four levels that for discussion's sake will be referred to as early childhood, middle childhood, preadolescence or transition, and adolescence or early adulthood. It is based upon the same fundamental principles as those earlier defined and applied to the programming for the trainable mentally retardedthe characteristics of the child, his prognosis, and his physical and psychosocial environment. The early childhood program for the educable mentally retarded is an extremely important part of the total program. First, there is ample evidence that if stimulating psychosocial activities are provided for these children at an early age (preschool), significant positive changes in their level of behavior and rate of development can be accomplished. Second, whether or not significant changes are made in the rate of intellectual development, a readiness for learning can be established that will ensure
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that they will derive greater benefit from future instruction than they would have without these early childhood experiences. Third, children's initial school experiences should be positive and satisfying ones in which they have success. Educable mentally retarded children should be placed in special classes as soon as it is possible to identify them. Only in this way will they desire to remain in school until their programs have been completed, rather than only until they can legally leave school. Since a characteristic of many lower class children is a meager vocabulary and poor language skills, an intensive attack upon this problem is a requisite. Another emphasis that must be included, also an environmental rather than an intellectual characteristic, is on cleanliness, good health, and hygienic practices. In other ways much of the program is similar to that provided children in regular nursery schools and kindergartens. These programs are designed to provide children with experiences in listening, following instructions, basic quantitative concepts, understanding of sequences, social relationships, and various visual, auditory, and memory activities. These experiences will make it possible (given the readiness background) for them to benefit from the more formal instruction that they will receive later. It must be remembered in instruction at this as well as at succeeding levels that instruction must generally be provided later than for children in general (roughly at their mental age rather than chronological age) and the pacing of learning must be in harmony with intellectual development (intelligence quotient). Toward the termination of early childhood and throughout the middle childhood level, formal and systematic instruction in basic skills (reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic) is provided. The skills are contentless areas, but important as tools for the continuation of learning, even after leaving school, and for ease of adjustment. With "normal" children these skills are often thought of as being essential primarily for the acquisition of the further education to be presented in secondary schools and colleges. They have much more important functions than that, however-reading directions, finding a job, filling out forms, general communication, spending one's income, makins change, telling time, learning about happenings in the community, state, nation, and world, and so on. In today's society it is almost impossible to get along without these tools. Since the educable mentally retarded, on the average, are capable of learning these skills to about the level expected of the average fourth grader, it is essential that instruction in these areas be included as an emphasis of their program. Other aspects of the program at this level are the special subjects and content areas. The educable mentally retarded need to learn about the society and community in which they are living in order that they may understand and deal with them more effectively. They must also learn about their physical environment and the necessary adjustments
,
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they must make in relation to it. Art, music, and physical education are included to provide them with as efficient a body as possible, so that they can perform the activities of which they are capable, provide them with recreational and avocational skills and interests, and provide them with alternative methods of expression and communication. The preadolescent or transition level calls for a continuation of the middle childhood program with the addition of a broad exploratory set of experiences related to the general world of work. These are provided primarily through the school's industrial arts and home economics programs. It is well known that intellectual development tapers off with age and terminates somewhere between the fifteenth and twentieth years, depending upon the individual. Since the educable mentally retarded are limited in regard to the level at which they will ever be able to perform, it is essential that instruction be continued intensively until they have acquired as complete a grasp of essential knowledge and as high a level of competency in skills as is possible. The job exploratory area does not imply the study of or preparation for specific work. Instead, it is a broad investigation of the world of work with experiences in the several industrial arts shops and home economics laboratories of the school. The purpose is to give the youngster an acquaintance with materials and instruction in the use and care of tools, and to develop desirable attitudes toward the accomplishment of a task or construction of an object. The adolescent or young adult level is the last part of the program for the educable mentally retarded. While most public school programs are preparatory in nature (preparing the student essentially for more education in a university, business college, or vocational school), this program must be terminal. Here the children must be prepared to assume their place in the community upon the termination of the program. This aspect of the program can be divided into three broad phases, each of approximately one year in duration. The first consists of an intensive study of jobs and job areas within the community and region. The student is thus provided with an understanding of the opportunities that are available as well as a chance to evaluate his skills and abilities against the demands of the job. Concurrently, he is instructed in how to apply for a job. Meanwhile, he is receiving more specific and intensive industrial arts and home economics experiences. The academic areas are also included, to remedy any deficiency that may be present and to demonstrate their application in life situations. The second and third phases are work-study programs, in which the school's part is to remedy educational deficiencies and needs that are displayed as the boys and girls are performing on their jobs. Initially the jobs are exploratory in nature and the work assignments are of short duration-a few weeks in length. This is for the purpose of determining
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the kind of job each person will perform best, the kind of job he enjoys most, and the supplementary services or instruction he requires. Finally, the job assignments become longer, focusing upon those at which the students appear to perform most adequately. It is obvious that these final aspects of the program for the educable mentally retarded become highly individualized. Not only does each of these young adults have distinct job experiences, but he also presents unique adjustment and learning problems that must be dealt with on a one-to-one basis. For those with the highest potential, the vocational school may be the appropriate "work" assignment. Here he can learn to become a highly skilled tradesman. Even these pupils, however, usually require the support of the special education program to enable them to achieve the status of which they appear to be capable. Educational Environment. Classes for the educable mentally retarded are usually housed in regular elementary and secondary schools. This is appropriate for this group of children, since the objectives of the program are to educate the children so that they will be able to take their places in society as independent, self-directing members of it. Thus, they should be given as many experiences as possible of a "normal" nature. In addition, the regular schools provide many opportunities for learning outside the special classroom. These experiences are found primarily through social contacts and special subject areas (physical education, art, music, industrial arts, home economics). Some of them could be provided in no other way. The concept of the neighborhood school also is an important one in this placement. Insofar as possible these children should be attending the same school they would have attended were they not mentall; retarded. They should attend school with their neighborhood friendsthe people with whom in all probability they will continue to live. Transporting them to other schools and school districts, while sometimes essential, removes much of the social value that is essential to a good program. It makes them different from the rest of the children merely because they come in a bus and i are from a different neighborhood. In addition, it complicates the provision of special help and participation in extracurricular activities. Methodology. During the 1950's and early 1960's a large number of studies were conducted of the learning characteristics of the mentally retarded. One of the purposes of these studies was to discover whether any unique characteristics existed that might determine the need for the development of special materials and methodologies. In summarizing the information obtained, no special methods appear to be indicated for the educable mentally retarded as a population. The principles to be followed in instruction are essentially the same as for all children-teach the child at his level (not below or above), make sure he has the necessary experiential background and intelligence to learn the concepts
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and skills, and select those learnings that are of value and have purpose. Probably the single best methodology is to relate the learning experience to some natural activity of the learner. Then he is willing to apply himself to its acquisition and, through understanding its relationship to a familiar experience, has a better chance of thoroughly understanding it.
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
The education of the mentally retarded is, in one way, a highly unique and difficult area of education to deal with effectively, and yet it should present relatively few problems to education. Much of the difficulty apparent in numerous programs appears to be based upon a lack of understanding of the true nature of the problem by the educator, resultant unrealistic and inappropriate programs for the children, and demands by parents and other noneducators for results that cannot be accomplished. Mental retardation is a behavioral concept. Persons are mentally retarded because they behave that way, not because they are mongoloids or some other clinical type, or are brain injured, or were born to lower class families. Their degree of mental retardation is determined by how far their behavior deviates from the average for persons of their age. During their years in school they do not learn as much as most other children. They start to learn academic skills, concepts, and specific information later. They progress through school at a slower pace. Yet they learn and are capable of making adjustments within the limitations of their intelligence, their understanding of their past experiences, and the appropriateness and quality of their education. They are an integral part of the population, not apart from it. How they learn and how they make adjustments are accomplished in precisely the same fashion that is true for the population in general. The unique characteristic of educational programs for the mentally retarded is that they are designed to provide these children with experiences that are within their ability to learn and of such a nature that they will be of benefit to them. The programs, in general, have a continuity, so that the skills, knowledge, and attitudes taught at one level are based upon those taught earlier and will provide the foundations for ones taught at succeeding levels, as well as having implications for adult, out-of-school adjustment. For example, with the educable mentally retarded, attitudes of responsibility, punctuality, and performing at one's best are initiated at the early childhood level, but have important implications for adult vocational adjustment. There are no short-cuts to the accomplishment of the objectives of the education programs, whether for the trainable or the educable mentally retarded. Neither are there any special techniques or collections
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of experiences that will enable these persons to become something beyond their potential. The protected workshop (particularly for the trainable groups), the "specially designed" commercial materials and claims for unique educational treatments have demonstrated no dramatic changes in behavior or reduced the acuity of the total problem by reducing the numbers of the mentally retarded. The solid programs based upon known pedagogical and psychological principles have proved to be the most effective means of ensuring that those persons designated mentally retarded will behave at their highest levels, within the limitations imposed by their handicap. REFERENCES Johnson, G. 0.: Education for the Slow Learners. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. Kirk, S. A., and Johnson, G. 0.: Educating the Retarded Child. Boston, Houghton MiHlin Co., 1951. Kirk, S. A., Kames, M. B., and Kirk, W. D.: You and Your Retarded Child. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1958. College of Education The Ohio State University 1945 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43210
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Special education for the mentally retarded has been assigned the role of being able to provide all the answers leading to the achievement of the hopes and aspirations of many parents of mentally retarded children. This feeling has largely developed during the past two decades, although the seeds were planted over a century ago. Much of it is undoubtedly due to the initial attitudes that immigrants brought with them to the United States. Here was a country of limitless opportunity, and anyone could achieve anything through education. Thus the son of a coal miner, steel worker, or wheat farmer could become a physician, lawyer, or school teacher through education. And, more often than not it appeared to be accomplished. As a result, when parents were faced with the prospect of having to provide permanent custodial care for a severely mentally retarded child, or feared that a mildly mentally retarded child would never be able to achieve the place they desired for him in society, education was inevitably sought out to provide the panacea or cure. This usually occurred, however, only after medicine had been unable to do so. A consideration of the education of the mentally retarded involves providing the answers to a number of questions. What is education for the mentally retarded? How does it differ from general education? What are its objective or purposes? What can we realistically expect to accomplish? Each discipline operates within a conceptual framework compatible with its perceptions and consequent treatment of a problem. Each also develops its own vocabulary or unique connotations associated with common terms that are in general usage. Since mental retardation is an all-pervasive condition that affects all the relationships and activities of the individual, it is within the concerns of law, medicine, biochemistry,
(>
Chainnan, Faculty of Education of Exceptional Children, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Pediatric Clinics of North America-Vol. 15, No.4, November, 1968
1005
..._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and education. While the same terminology may be used by persons concerned with these several areas of science and behavior, they raise different ideas and concepts in the minds of each. The educator is an applied psychologist in the best sense of the term. He is fundamentally interested in learning and behavior. His function is not one of cure or of increasing intelligence (I.Q.), but to educate the intelligence, so that each person becomes as effective and intelligent as possible. Rather like a coach who through training and conditioning can help an athlete jump higher or run faster, he helps children strengthen their intelligence and learn to use it more efficiently and effectively. In order to accomplish this, he must understand how persons learn, under what conditions learning takes place most efficiently, why persons behave as they do, and what he can do that will cause a person to behave in such a fashion that he can achieve his goals, but so that his behavior will be acceptable to society.
EDUCATIONAL LEVELS AMONG THE MENTALLY RETARDED
For educational purposes, the mentally retarded are divided into four broad categories: (1) the severely mentally retarded, who can learn so little that they will require rather complete, intensive custodial care for their entire lives; (2) the trainable mentally retarded, who can learn sufficient skills, attitudes, and information to become semiindependent socially and as a consequence can remain in the community for as long as they have a parent or guardian who can give them the essential direction and supervision they require; ( 3 ) the educable mentally retarded, who have the potential for personal, social, and economic independence; and (4) slow learners, who generally have not been considered sufficiently handicapped to require special education. No definitive or accurate census data are or ever will become available on the incidence of mental retardation. The reason for this is that the concept of mental retardation is a comparative rather than an absolute one. There are no absolute measures of intelligence or intellectual behavior. A person is bright or dull only by comparison. For example, the "high-grade" mentally retarded patients in an institution consider themselves superior and smart as compared to the '10w-grade." As a result, the number of the mentally retarded depends entirely upon the definitions used and the cut-off points selected. The estimates that are available in terms of the educational definitions given, however, appear to be sufficiently accurate for planning purposes. Approximately 0.5 per cent of the population falls into the lowest two categories (the severely mentally retarded and the trainable mentally retarded). Among school-age children, two fifths of these will be severely mentally retarded.
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FOR
THE MENTALLY RETARDED
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In the remaining three fifths (the trainable mentally retarded), one third will have been committed to institutions at an early age, while the remaining two thirds will reside at home for extended periods. These more severe forms of mental retardation appear to be no respecter of race, creed, color or social class, although the lower and upper social classes tend to institutionalize their children more readily (in public and private institutions, respectively). As a result the majority of the trainable mentally retarded continuing to reside in the community and thus eligible for special education come from middle class families. This situation, however, is gradually changing to include more and more children from the lower social class as the number of educational facilities increases and the role of the. residential institution changes. A rather arbitrary delineation has been made in regard to the educable mentally retarded and the slow learners. The bottom 3 per cent of the population (excluding the lowest 0.5 per cent) have been designated as educable mentally retarded, with the next 17 or 18 per cent termed slow learners. Here social class plays an extremely important role. In the upwardly mobile members of the lower social class and the middle and upper classes, the incidence of· educable mental retardation is about 0.5 per cent, while in the lowe~ social class the incidence is 12 to 15 per cent. The same phenoirien~ri is true for the slow learners. Here the incidence within the middle and upper social classes is 3 to 5 per cent, while within the lower social class it is 35 to 40 per cent. One word of caution or explanation must be given at this point. While the educator is interested in intelligence and the educational designations are, to a large degree, based- upon intelligence, there is no innate or absolute measure. Rather, the educator is interested in functional or behavioral intelligence: "This is how this child behaves or performs at the present time, so this is what he is now." No commitment is made that this is the way in which he will behave in the future; only the child himself, his growth and development, and what he learns will determine that. Most children will continue to develop at much the same rate, but for some, dramatic changes will occur and are to be expected. The problem is that there is no known method of preselecting these children. Therefore a cure of the problem or condition is not the objective of programs for the mentally retarded, even though a cure (if it can rightfully be called that) will occasionally happen.
PROGRAM PLANNING FOR THE MENTALLY RETARDED
The planning of an educational program for children, including the mentally retarded, requires the consideration of three basic factors: the characteristics of the child; as accurate an estimate as possible of his future, eventual abilities, and role; and the psychosocial and physical
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environment in which he is living. Knowing his psychological and physical characteristics is essential in planning experiences that are within his abilities to learn and cope. His potential future role in the society and economy enables the planner to design a program that is realistic in terms of appropriate objectives. The final ingredient, knowledge of the physical and psychosocial environment, provides the information upon which meaningful educational experiences can be built. The Trainable Mentally Retarded The following discussion is not meant to be exhaustive, only indicative of how the previously mentioned factors will be taken into consideration in program planning by the teacher. The characteristics of the trainable mentally retarded, as the educator sees the children, are as follows: 1. They have very limited learning potential, operating intellectually at one fourth to one half the level of average children their age. 2. Their rate of intellectual development will be at one fourth to one half the rate normally expected in children. 3. The level and rate of intellectual development cannot be significantly changed by an early education program. 4. Among trainable mentally retarded children there will be an inordinately large number with major physical disabilities, minor motor incoordinations, and sensory handicaps. 5. Their speech and language development will be at the level of their mental ages. In addition, there will be many who have other speech difficulties due to the higher incidence of physical and motor factors. 6. They will often be behaving at a level significantly lower than their abilities levels, due to parental overprotection.
The trainable mentally retarded have a future potential of being able to adjust only to a custodial, protected environment and learning to make some contribution within the confines of that environment. Most of them will remain in the community, living at home, until they are adults. Upon the completion of school, approximately one fourth of them will be committed to institutions. The remainder will be committed gradually over the ensuing years, until practically none of them will still be at home by the age of 45. None of them will be capable of earning their own living, except within a very protected work setting, nor will they be able to direct their own affairs in society. The important environmental influences of the trainable mentally retarded are the home and immediate neighborhood. It is within this restricted area that they will be able to operate. In the future, their environment, in all probability, will be a public residential facility. The Program. The program for the trainable mentally retarded (taking into consideration the three defined influencing factors) can be divided into three broad phases-early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. The early childhood program has an immediate objec-
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tive of enabling the child to cope effectively with the demands of his specific physical and psychosocial environment. Thus, there is a strong emphasis upon self-help skills (dressing, eating, using the toilet, keeping clean, etc.), social skills (getting along with other children and adults, cooperation, orderliness, table manners, etc.), communications skills (speech development, speech improvement, language development, etc.) and physical and motor skills ( strength, endurance, gross and fine coordination, etc.). Since these children are often highly overprotected, their abilities in these areas tend to be abnormally limited, but susceptible to initial rapid improvement. The teacher must be careful to start at the child's behavioral level and then push him as rapidly as possible. In about one year most of the deficit will have been made up, and thereafter the rate of improvement will slow down to the rate of intellectual development. It is obvious from the previous discussion that a regular kindergarten or nursery school program has little or nothing to offer trainable mentally retarded children. First, the program is too mature for their level of development. Second, the nature of the activities is not appropriate for their educational needs. Third, they have nothing in common with the other children, have no peers, and consequently can derive no benefit from the available social contacts. The program at the middle childhood level is a continuation of the early childhood curriculum, with emphasis on the same skills and attitudes for those children who are new in the program or have not developed sufficiently in the areas covered. From there, the emphasis changes in the self-help area to limited kinds of contribution activities (making beds, dusting, setting table, care of and putting away clothing). The social skills area should expand with the children's maturity and ability to deal with more complex kinds of social settings. Oral communication activities should continue to be stressed, with emphasis upon time, sequence, and completeness of detail in addition to those skills mentioned for the early childhood level. Reading as such is not included in the program, although the recognition and understanding of certain signs may be introduced for safety and protection purposes. A continued emphasis upon physical and motor activities should be planned, since the problems found at the early childhood level will not have been completely corrected or improved to the extent possible. Programs for the adolescent trainable mentally retarded have not been as well developed as those for the early and middle childhood levels. Here the terminal aspects of the training experiences are stressed. enabling the children to leave the school with their attitudes and competencies as fully developed as possible. They should be able to take their place within the limited environment they are capable of dealing with. As children mature, their characteristics deviate more and more
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widely from one another, so the specific experience provided them at this level must become more and more highly individualized. For example, those children who approach the capabilities of the educable mentally retarded should be provided with selected occupational experiences of an unskilled, general nature. In this way, if the opportunity becomes available in a protected workshop or a business controlled by a family friend or relative, they will be able to perform at an acceptable level. For most, however, learning to contribute within the protected environment of the home or an institution is most appropriate. Meanwhile, the least able will continue to learn to take care of their personal needs, thus requiring less care and immediate supervision and releasing the parents or attendants for other activities. Training Environment. There has been a general trend to place the trainable mentally retarded in regular elementary schools, and occasionally in secondary schools, over the past decade or two. In terms of the objectives of the programs, there is little to justify this practice. The trainable mentally retarded have little in common with the children enrolled in general education or other special education programs. There is relatively little in the way of similarity of educational experiences, interests or abilities. Since the other children of the school are not their peers, there is little in the way of meaningful social experience that can be provided naturally. Finally, the space, equipment, and instructional materials needs of the classes for the trainable mentally retarded are not normally found in a regular school building. The most effective educational environments, as a result, are specially designed separate facilities. Methodology. The methodology that has been found to be most effective with trainable mentally retarded children is simple conditioning for the younger and intellectually less mature ones. Much of what young children do, as well as their modes of behavior, is largely habitual-washing, brushing teeth, buttoning, tying, and so forth. Operant conditioning techniques have been found to be excellent in the formation of the routine use of these. Further, activities should be designed so as to closely resemble the basic characteristics of the environment or situation in which those activites are and will be used. This provides for the use of a simple transfer of identical elements rather than requiring an abstract understanding and transfer of principle. Sign reading and recognition should be taught in relation to the type of sign used, placed either in appropriate places or in conjunction with contrived, lifelike situations. Home environments (kitchen, living room, bedroom) should be an integral part of the school environment, in order that home activities may be taught in appropriate relationship to use. Thus the program, the educational environment, and the techniques or methods used are integrally related to each other for effective and efficient achievement of the objectives of the program.
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The Educable Mentally Retarded The educable mentally retarded have a potential of social and economic independence in the general society as adults. They are capable of earning a living, primarily in the unskilled and semiskilled job areas, although 15 to 20 per cent of them will probably be able to perform adequately in the skilled trades if properly educated. They will be able to handle their wages intelligently enough to require a minimum of support from welfare agencies. In addition, they will be able to deal with most of their social problems independently, although as a group they will require a disproportionate amount of attention from various family and social agencies. Most educable mentally retarded children will come from lower class families-which is actually to their advantage. Their parents will not have unrealistic aspirations for them, and consequently they and their families will tend to be satisfied with the kinds of work they can do and the levels of jobs they can obtain. Those educable mentally retarded children who are born to middle and upper class families are in many ways far less fortunate. These parents often disable them to a greater degree than does the mental retardation, in that their aspirations for their children are far too high. Often they will not permit the children to perform the jobs of which they are capable-refusing to let them accept the job. They would rather keep them in their homes, so that they may continue to live "in the manner to which they are accustomed." Eventually many of these children must be cared for in institutions as a result of this earlier treatment and care. The Program. The following program is specifically designed for the educable mentally retarded who have lower social backgrounds. A somewhat similar program could be described for those who come from middle class homes with the addition of a continuous, parallel parent guidance and counseling program essential to the achievement of appropriate goals. The program is divided into four levels that for discussion's sake will be referred to as early childhood, middle childhood, preadolescence or transition, and adolescence or early adulthood. It is based upon the same fundamental principles as those earlier defined and applied to the programming for the trainable mentally retardedthe characteristics of the child, his prognosis, and his physical and psychosocial environment. The early childhood program for the educable mentally retarded is an extremely important part of the total program. First, there is ample evidence that if stimulating psychosocial activities are provided for these children at an early age (preschool), significant positive changes in their level of behavior and rate of development can be accomplished. Second, whether or not significant changes are made in the rate of intellectual development, a readiness for learning can be established that will ensure
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that they will derive greater benefit from future instruction than they would have without these early childhood experiences. Third, children's initial school experiences should be positive and satisfying ones in which they have success. Educable mentally retarded children should be placed in special classes as soon as it is possible to identify them. Only in this way will they desire to remain in school until their programs have been completed, rather than only until they can legally leave school. Since a characteristic of many lower class children is a meager vocabulary and poor language skills, an intensive attack upon this problem is a requisite. Another emphasis that must be included, also an environmental rather than an intellectual characteristic, is on cleanliness, good health, and hygienic practices. In other ways much of the program is similar to that provided children in regular nursery schools and kindergartens. These programs are designed to provide children with experiences in listening, following instructions, basic quantitative concepts, understanding of sequences, social relationships, and various visual, auditory, and memory activities. These experiences will make it possible (given the readiness background) for them to benefit from the more formal instruction that they will receive later. It must be remembered in instruction at this as well as at succeeding levels that instruction must generally be provided later than for children in general (roughly at their mental age rather than chronological age) and the pacing of learning must be in harmony with intellectual development (intelligence quotient). Toward the termination of early childhood and throughout the middle childhood level, formal and systematic instruction in basic skills (reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic) is provided. The skills are contentless areas, but important as tools for the continuation of learning, even after leaving school, and for ease of adjustment. With "normal" children these skills are often thought of as being essential primarily for the acquisition of the further education to be presented in secondary schools and colleges. They have much more important functions than that, however-reading directions, finding a job, filling out forms, general communication, spending one's income, makins change, telling time, learning about happenings in the community, state, nation, and world, and so on. In today's society it is almost impossible to get along without these tools. Since the educable mentally retarded, on the average, are capable of learning these skills to about the level expected of the average fourth grader, it is essential that instruction in these areas be included as an emphasis of their program. Other aspects of the program at this level are the special subjects and content areas. The educable mentally retarded need to learn about the society and community in which they are living in order that they may understand and deal with them more effectively. They must also learn about their physical environment and the necessary adjustments
,
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they must make in relation to it. Art, music, and physical education are included to provide them with as efficient a body as possible, so that they can perform the activities of which they are capable, provide them with recreational and avocational skills and interests, and provide them with alternative methods of expression and communication. The preadolescent or transition level calls for a continuation of the middle childhood program with the addition of a broad exploratory set of experiences related to the general world of work. These are provided primarily through the school's industrial arts and home economics programs. It is well known that intellectual development tapers off with age and terminates somewhere between the fifteenth and twentieth years, depending upon the individual. Since the educable mentally retarded are limited in regard to the level at which they will ever be able to perform, it is essential that instruction be continued intensively until they have acquired as complete a grasp of essential knowledge and as high a level of competency in skills as is possible. The job exploratory area does not imply the study of or preparation for specific work. Instead, it is a broad investigation of the world of work with experiences in the several industrial arts shops and home economics laboratories of the school. The purpose is to give the youngster an acquaintance with materials and instruction in the use and care of tools, and to develop desirable attitudes toward the accomplishment of a task or construction of an object. The adolescent or young adult level is the last part of the program for the educable mentally retarded. While most public school programs are preparatory in nature (preparing the student essentially for more education in a university, business college, or vocational school), this program must be terminal. Here the children must be prepared to assume their place in the community upon the termination of the program. This aspect of the program can be divided into three broad phases, each of approximately one year in duration. The first consists of an intensive study of jobs and job areas within the community and region. The student is thus provided with an understanding of the opportunities that are available as well as a chance to evaluate his skills and abilities against the demands of the job. Concurrently, he is instructed in how to apply for a job. Meanwhile, he is receiving more specific and intensive industrial arts and home economics experiences. The academic areas are also included, to remedy any deficiency that may be present and to demonstrate their application in life situations. The second and third phases are work-study programs, in which the school's part is to remedy educational deficiencies and needs that are displayed as the boys and girls are performing on their jobs. Initially the jobs are exploratory in nature and the work assignments are of short duration-a few weeks in length. This is for the purpose of determining
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the kind of job each person will perform best, the kind of job he enjoys most, and the supplementary services or instruction he requires. Finally, the job assignments become longer, focusing upon those at which the students appear to perform most adequately. It is obvious that these final aspects of the program for the educable mentally retarded become highly individualized. Not only does each of these young adults have distinct job experiences, but he also presents unique adjustment and learning problems that must be dealt with on a one-to-one basis. For those with the highest potential, the vocational school may be the appropriate "work" assignment. Here he can learn to become a highly skilled tradesman. Even these pupils, however, usually require the support of the special education program to enable them to achieve the status of which they appear to be capable. Educational Environment. Classes for the educable mentally retarded are usually housed in regular elementary and secondary schools. This is appropriate for this group of children, since the objectives of the program are to educate the children so that they will be able to take their places in society as independent, self-directing members of it. Thus, they should be given as many experiences as possible of a "normal" nature. In addition, the regular schools provide many opportunities for learning outside the special classroom. These experiences are found primarily through social contacts and special subject areas (physical education, art, music, industrial arts, home economics). Some of them could be provided in no other way. The concept of the neighborhood school also is an important one in this placement. Insofar as possible these children should be attending the same school they would have attended were they not mentall; retarded. They should attend school with their neighborhood friendsthe people with whom in all probability they will continue to live. Transporting them to other schools and school districts, while sometimes essential, removes much of the social value that is essential to a good program. It makes them different from the rest of the children merely because they come in a bus and i are from a different neighborhood. In addition, it complicates the provision of special help and participation in extracurricular activities. Methodology. During the 1950's and early 1960's a large number of studies were conducted of the learning characteristics of the mentally retarded. One of the purposes of these studies was to discover whether any unique characteristics existed that might determine the need for the development of special materials and methodologies. In summarizing the information obtained, no special methods appear to be indicated for the educable mentally retarded as a population. The principles to be followed in instruction are essentially the same as for all children-teach the child at his level (not below or above), make sure he has the necessary experiential background and intelligence to learn the concepts
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and skills, and select those learnings that are of value and have purpose. Probably the single best methodology is to relate the learning experience to some natural activity of the learner. Then he is willing to apply himself to its acquisition and, through understanding its relationship to a familiar experience, has a better chance of thoroughly understanding it.
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
The education of the mentally retarded is, in one way, a highly unique and difficult area of education to deal with effectively, and yet it should present relatively few problems to education. Much of the difficulty apparent in numerous programs appears to be based upon a lack of understanding of the true nature of the problem by the educator, resultant unrealistic and inappropriate programs for the children, and demands by parents and other noneducators for results that cannot be accomplished. Mental retardation is a behavioral concept. Persons are mentally retarded because they behave that way, not because they are mongoloids or some other clinical type, or are brain injured, or were born to lower class families. Their degree of mental retardation is determined by how far their behavior deviates from the average for persons of their age. During their years in school they do not learn as much as most other children. They start to learn academic skills, concepts, and specific information later. They progress through school at a slower pace. Yet they learn and are capable of making adjustments within the limitations of their intelligence, their understanding of their past experiences, and the appropriateness and quality of their education. They are an integral part of the population, not apart from it. How they learn and how they make adjustments are accomplished in precisely the same fashion that is true for the population in general. The unique characteristic of educational programs for the mentally retarded is that they are designed to provide these children with experiences that are within their ability to learn and of such a nature that they will be of benefit to them. The programs, in general, have a continuity, so that the skills, knowledge, and attitudes taught at one level are based upon those taught earlier and will provide the foundations for ones taught at succeeding levels, as well as having implications for adult, out-of-school adjustment. For example, with the educable mentally retarded, attitudes of responsibility, punctuality, and performing at one's best are initiated at the early childhood level, but have important implications for adult vocational adjustment. There are no short-cuts to the accomplishment of the objectives of the education programs, whether for the trainable or the educable mentally retarded. Neither are there any special techniques or collections
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of experiences that will enable these persons to become something beyond their potential. The protected workshop (particularly for the trainable groups), the "specially designed" commercial materials and claims for unique educational treatments have demonstrated no dramatic changes in behavior or reduced the acuity of the total problem by reducing the numbers of the mentally retarded. The solid programs based upon known pedagogical and psychological principles have proved to be the most effective means of ensuring that those persons designated mentally retarded will behave at their highest levels, within the limitations imposed by their handicap. REFERENCES Johnson, G. 0.: Education for the Slow Learners. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. Kirk, S. A., and Johnson, G. 0.: Educating the Retarded Child. Boston, Houghton MiHlin Co., 1951. Kirk, S. A., Kames, M. B., and Kirk, W. D.: You and Your Retarded Child. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1958. College of Education The Ohio State University 1945 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43210