7. THE EDUCABLY MENTALLY RETARDED CHILD Kirk (1972) defined the educably mentally retarded child as one who has potentialities for development in (1) minimum educability in the academic subjects in the school, (2) social adjustment to such a point that he can get along independently in the community, (3) minimum occupational adequacy to such a degree that he can later support himself partially or totally at the adult level. Kirk (1972) maintained it is difficult to list characteristics found in all educable mentally retarded children. No single child has all of these characteristics, for some are peculiar to only a certain group. A teacher or diagnostician should keep the following in mind in identifying or teaching, the educable mentally retarded. Physical Characteristics 1. In height, weight, and motor coordination, most educable mentally retarded children approximate normal children. 2. Because a small number have organic causes for the retardation, these few are likely to be physically inferior to normal children. 3. More handicaps of vision, hearing, and motor coordination are found among the educable mentally retarded. However, a substantial number do not have such defects. 4. Many retarded children come from substandard homes, which are generally inferior in sanitation and attention to health matters (p. 195. Intellectual Characteristics 1. The mentally retarded child performs poorly on verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests. His IQ tends to be in the range from 50 or 55 to 75 or 80. This implies a rate of mental development approximately one-half to three-fourths that of an average child. 2. Retarded mental development may include slowness in maturation of specific intellectual functions needed for school work, such as being significantly low in memory for auditory and visual materials, generalizing ability, language ability, conceptual and perceptual abilities, imagination and creative abilities, and other functions considered basically intellectual (p. 195). Academic Characteristics 1. The educably mentally retarded child is not ready for reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic when he enters school at the age of 6 unless he has special abilities. He does not begin to acquire these skills until he is about 8 years old or even, perhaps, until he is 11. This delay is related to mental and not to chronological age. 2. The rate at which the child progresses in school is comparable to his rate of mental development, about one-half to three-quarters the rate of the average child.3.At the end of his formal school career his academic achievement will probably have reached second- to sixth-grade level, depending upon his mental maturation and/or special abilities (p. 195). Personal and Social Characteristics 1. Short attention span or lack of concentration and participation of the mentally retarded child in a regular classroom is often caused by expecting him to respond like other children to materials he cannot learn or understand in a classroom situation. This characteristic, Kirk believed, tends to disappear when materials and methods are geared to their ability to succeed. 2. Low frustration tolerance has been ascribed to the mentally retarded. It is related to repeated failure experiences in life and in school since the child is expected to function according to his chronological age. Tolerance for frustration can be increased by a home or school environment which will avoid failure and substitute success experiences. 3. Social values and attitudes generally correspond to those of the home and neighborhood associates and are typical of the culture in which the child is reared. 4. The retarded child's play interests correspond more closely to those children of his own mental age than to those of similar chronological age. 5. There are more behavior problems and there is slightly more delinquency among the retarded in proportion to their numbers than among children of average intelligence (p. 197). Occupational Characteristics 1. The educable mentally retarded can learn to do unskilled and semi-skilled work at the adult level. 2. Any failure in unskilled occupational tasks is generally related to personal, social, and interpersonal characteristics rather than an inability to execute the task assigned. 3. Employment records of the educably mentally retarded show that approximately 80 percent eventually adjust to occupations of an unskilled or semi-skilled nature and partially or totally support themselves. Programs for the Educably Mentally Retarded Kirk and Johnson (1951) listed the purposes of programs for teaching the educably mentally retarded. 1. They should be educated to get along with their fellow men; i.e., they should develop social competence through numerous social experiences. 2. They should learn to participate in work for the purpose of earning their own living; they should develop occupational competence through efficient vocational guidance and training as part of their school experience. 3. They should develop emotional security and independence in the school and in the home through a good mental hygiene program. 4. They should develop habits of health and sanitation through a good program of health education. 5. They should learn the minimum essentials of school subjects, even though their academic limits are third to fifth grade. 6. They should learn to occupy themselves in wholesome leisure time activities through an educational program that teaches them to enjoy recreational and leisure time activities. 7. They should learn to become adequate members of a family and a home through an educational program that emphasizes home membership as a function of the curriculum. 8. They should learn to become adequate members of a community through a school program that emphasizes community participation (p. 118). Stated in different words, Kirk (1972) wrote that every program should stress the development of (1) social competence, (2) personal adequacy, and (3) occupational competence. Sociometric studies of mentally retarded children in the regular grades indicated that these children tend to be isolated and rejected by their normal peer groups (Johnson, 1950). Another study by Johnson (1961) of retarded children in special classes indicated that those in special classes are better accepted by their mentally retarded peer groups than are the mentally retarded in the regular grades. Welch (1967) found that an integrated special class was superior to a segregated special class. She studied the self-derogation and academic achievement of mentally retarded elementary school children assigned to (1) a segregated special class, and (2) an integrated special class in which the children spent one-half day in a regular class. She found that the children in the integrated program made higher achievement scores and decreased in self-derogation over an eight-month period as compared to the children in the segregated class. Although the studies are contradictory, the bulk of research evidence supports the thesis that children in special classes are better adjusted, have a better self-concept and less tension than the mentally retarded children remaining in the regular grades (Kirk, 1964, Guskin and Spicker, 1969). In academic achievement the majority of studies show that the higher levels of the mentally retarded in the regular grades are equal or superior on educational achievement to similar children placed in special classes. There is some evidence that lower educably mentally retarded tend to make better educational progress in special classes than in the regular grades, while those at the upper levels (75 to 85 IQ) tend to make better educational progress in the regular grades than in the special class (Goldstein, Moss, Jordan, 1965). Some research was conducted on the motor proficiency and physical education achievements of the retarded. These studies (Francis and Rarick, 1970, Rarick and Widdop, 1970) indicated that in motor proficiency retarded children are inferior to normals. The effects of physical education programs in improving proficiency have shown positive results (Solomon and Pargle, (1967). Many sound learning principles have been applied in behavior modification techniques including the use of programmed learning. Denny (1966) discussed some of these principles as related to programmed learning with the retarded. None of these principles by themselves will transform the learning process. However, each has a part to play, and in combination these principles tend to maximize learning. Denny urged educators to implement systematic instruction based upon sound principles which facilitate learning and make teaching more profitable such as: 1. Never let the child fail. 2. Provide feedback so that he knows when he has responded correctly. 3. Reinforce correct responses. 4. Find the optimum level. 5. Proceed in a systematic, step-by-step fashion so that the more basic necessary knowledge and habits precede more difficult material. 6. Use minimal change from one step to the next to facilitate learning. 7. Provide for positive transfer of knowledge from one situation to another. 8. Provide sufficient repetition of experiences to develop over-learning. 9. Space repetitions of material over time rather than massing the experiences in a short duration. 10. Consistently associate a given stimulus or cue with one and only one response in the early stages of learning. 11. Motivate the child toward greater effort by: (a) reinforcement and the satisfaction of succeeding, (b) variation in the presentation of material, (c) enthusiasm on the part of the teacher, and (d) optimal length of sessions. 12. Limit the number of concepts presented in any one period. 13. Arrange materials with proper cues for attention. 14. Provide success experiences. All these principles that Denny proposed not only would work well with exceptional children but with normal children as well. Perhaps the real issue in the education of children, adolescents, and adults is to proceed step by step until a knowledge base is developed and the learner is prepared to move forward toward realizing his own human learning potential. Education is itself an incremental process of individual growth, and not some spontaneous burst of energy resulting in dynamic change. Kolstoe (1970) supported this notion by stating that learning tasks be presented systematically. He proposed: 1. The tasks should be uncomplicated. 2. The tasks should be brief. 3. The tasks should be sequentially presented so that the learner proceeds in a sequence of small steps, each one built upon previously learned tasks. 4. Each learning task should be the kind in which success is possible. 5. Overlearning must be built into the lessons. 6. Learning tasks should be applied to objects, problems, and situations in the learner's life environment. Unless the tasks are relevant, the learner will have great difficulty in seeing their possible importance (pp. 22-23). Knowles (1970), the father of modern adult education, would agree. For the educably mentally retarded children as well as for adults, learning tasks need to be problem oriented and relevant to their lives. In conclusion, Dunn (1968) challenged most previously conceived notions about the education of mentally retarded children by presenting arguments for abolishing special education for this group. He stated: "A better education than special class placement is needed for socioculturally deprived children with mild learning problems who have been labeled educable mentally retarded" (p.5). In an epilogue, Dunn stated what he believed to be the paramount issue related to dealing with exceptional children: The conscience of special educators needs to rub up against morality. In large measure we have been at the mercy of the general education establishment in that we accept problem pupils who have been referred out of the regular grades. In this way, we contribute to the delinquency of the general educators since we remove the pupils that are problems for them and thus reduce their need to deal with individual differences. The entente of mutual delusion between general and special education that special class placement will be advantageous to slow learning children of poor parents can no longer be tolerated. We must face the reality--we are asked to take children others cannot teach, and a large percentage of these from ethnically and/or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Much of special education will continue to be a sham of dreams unless we immerse ourselves into the total environment of our children from inadequate homes and backgrounds and insist on a comprehensive ecological push--with a quality educational program as part of it. This is hardly compatible with our prevalent practice of expediency in which we employ many untrained and less than master teachers to increase the number of special day classes in response to the pressures of waiting lists. Because of these pressures from the school system, we have been guilty of fostering quantity with little regard for quality of special education instruction. Our first responsibility is to have an abiding commitment to the less fortunate children we aim to serve. Our honor, integrity, and honesty should no longer be subverted and rationalized by what we hope and may believe we are doing for these children--hopes and beliefs which have little basis in reality (p. 20).