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Individual versus Group Instruction. The objectives and activities listed above suggest that there will be a considerable amount of individualized teaching in these classes, especially with the younger groups and with children recently entered in the class. There may be, of course, much individualized instruction in periods such as dismissal, when the whole group is getting ready to leave. During this time the teacher may circulate among the children as one or another appears to need help.

Hudson (22), in her observational study of actual classroom work, found that individualized instruction was used in about one-half of the lessons included in her observations. She also found that whole-group instruction was used in about 40 to 45 percent of the lessons. The remaining 5 to 10 percent of the lessons were given over to small-group instruction.

Hudson also found considerable variation in the amount of individualization of instruction in the various activities. Individualization was high in self-help activities and in learning number concepts and sensory training. More group instruction was used in motor development and language training. It was almost exclusively used in music.

The teachers observed by Hudson tended, therefore, to use primarily either individual or whole-group instruction, with comparatively little small-group instruction. The principal variation appeared to be associated with the various curricular areas. Further study of various groupings is needed. It is probable that the amount of small-group activity possible will depend a great deal on the general maturity and readiness of the group.

Guidance and reinforcement, nonverbal teaching, motivation and the involving of children in a situation, and structuring the situation or the group ranked high in frequency. Hudson also identified seven clusters as problem areas in the teaching of severely retarded children. These were: how to ensure that the children are (1) controlling themselves, (2) willing to work, (3) feeling secure, (4) learning how to learn, (5) getting along with others, (6) paying attention, and (7) contributing relevant ideas.

She summarized the "good" teacher of the severely retarded as follows:

... one who is skillful in developing independence, initiative, self-reliance, and a feeling of personal worth in the children; who has a class where motivation is good, interest is high, the children's attention is held during a lesson, and the children get a real feeling of success and confidence from their work; who encourages children to do things for themselves, and yet gives adequate guidance at each step in learning; and who sets the limits so the children know what to expect and how to carry on.

Group Control.-The question of group control has been a matter of concern to many persons. Some groups have started with rather rigid controls. Others have not found this degree of control necessary, even at first. Some have argued that these children will probably always be in rather "structured" situations, so that "discipline from within" is not so important for them. Experience with these children has shown some promising developments in "inner control," so that this might well be an objective for the teacher. Instances of control by the group itself have been found. Many or perhaps most of these children appear to have sufficient sensitivity to have shown evidence of a desire to conform.

Hudson (22), on the basis of five consecutive 20-minute observations during a single school day, found that the number of control contacts was about the same for the first four observation periods, but tended to rise toward the end of the total 100-minute observation period. The number of control contacts was also higher for primary than for older groups. The number of control contacts in the primary group dropped after the beginning observation period and then rose again during the fifth period. On the basis of these observations, the teacher may expect the number of necessary control contacts to be higher with younger children than with older children and to rise toward the end of a 100-minute teaching period for all groups (presumably because of such factors as fatigue).

In the order of frequency of use, the following control methods were observed by Hudson.

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Records.-Record keeping is important, but it should be made as simple as is consistent with the types of information which are considered necessary. There are certain basic records which are required by the school system on all children. These will include such matters as identification data, enrollment and attendance data, health data, and other administrative materials.

In addition, the teacher should have access to certain data which will be helpful in establishing workable classroom procedures for each child. These will include psychometric reports and similar test data

as well as information regarding the child's previous educational experiences. Such material should be kept confidential, of course, and is best kept in a locked file in the classroom.

The keeping of emergency data may also be more than ordinarily important with these children. Such information might include the name of the family physician, medication instructions if needed, emergency provisions for returning a child to his home safely, and the like.

It will be helpful also for the teacher to maintain anecdotal records of important occurrences in the classroom, conferences with parents, and similar materials. Progress reports, based on an inventory of important learnings, periodically filled out, may also furnish valuable information, especially when important decisions are to be made regarding the child.

Parent-Teacher-Child Relationships

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THILE PARENT-TEACHER COOPERATION is considered indispensable in all school situations, it is especially important with this group of children. This relationship should begin as a friendly working one between parent and teacher in the nature of "getting together to do what's best for the child." This point of view would consider the parent and teacher as partners in a joint enterprise, with this friendly working relationship continuing throughout as most essential. A relationship such as this would involve working toward common goals on the part of both parent and teacher, and of developing means and techniques of working together toward these goals. It seems generally agreed that the teacher's basic role should be that of a teacher, not that of the physician, social worker, psychologist, or rehabilitation worker. It is generally agreed, too, that as an educator, he has a unique role to play and a unique service to offer, even though it is important that he be aware of, and prepared to cooperate with, other services in a total program.

In the field of mental health, the contrasting roles of the teacher and other personnel have been described in the 54th Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (45), as follows:

Although the clinical psychologist, the psychiatrist, and the teacher are working toward the same goal of helping young people achieve wholesome emotional adjustment, each has a different function to perform. We gain little if the teacher employs procedures that are peculiarly appropriate for a clinical worker or if the psychiatrist or psychologist dicates classroom practices which the teacher is expected to follow.

With appropriate changes in wording, this would seem to apply to the present situation as well.

Murray (44), writing as a parent, has recently summarized the needs of parents of retarded children. Certain of the needs she reports seem particularly relevant to the problem of teacher-parentchild relationships.

We need someone to give us guidance in the simple, basic processes of home training. We need someone who can put us in touch with the various community and state agencies that can help with constructive management of the child. we need guidance from those who can help us decide upon and provide a training program for the child.

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Teachers should also be sensitive to the fact that parents' attitudes and insights grow and change. They should endeavor to familiarize

themselves with the current readiness of the parents to discuss their child's problem and work with them at that level.

Boyd (4), for example, speaking as a parent, has described the three major stages through which he went in making an adjustment to this problem. The first was that stage of bewilderment, pain, frustration in which his concern was almost entirely with himself and the effect the circumstances had on him as a person. In the second stage he reported that he began to think less of himself and more about his child and what could be done for her. It was only at the third stage, he stated, that he arrived at the point where he could think more of what he could do for others than what others could do for him.

Much of the teacher's task may be to interpret, from the educational point of view, aspects of the child's growth, mental age rates of growth, spurts and plateaus in learning, and similar phenomena. The teacher should be prepared to explain such matters as the fact that growth is slow, and that much of the work with children is the building up of readiness, which sometimes includes a large element of waiting for a particular readiness to appear. He should be prepared to help the parent understand the child's readiness at any given time.

Schools visits by the parents can be a helpful form of parentteacher cooperation. The parents' observation of the child's behavior in a group situation may be useful in helping them toward a more accurate and realistic understanding of their own child's development. It may help them toward a more objective appraisal of their child's rate of growth. They can, by this means, see for themselves many aspects of his development, such as social adjustment or maturity, in a new setting.

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