Investigating structure of intellect at 4 years, the study hypothesized greater status and ethnic differences for semantic than for other ability factors for lower-status and Negro subjects. Six ability hypotheses implicit in a 22-test battery were determined for four subgroups of middle and lower Negro and white children (N -100). Obtained factor structure showed no qualitative difference among groups but confirmed and enlarged the structure-of-intel-!ect patterns established in previous work. Significant differences in mean factor scores confirmed hypotheses of status and ethnic difference only for cognitive semantics. Divergent semantic, figural, and memory factors did not differ.

This educational model establishes the effectiveness of employing natural, gentle, and nonadversive strategies as a means of shaping play skills. Severely/profoundly handicapped children fail to spontaneously acquire the skills for play. This approach provides structured routines designed to provide opportunities for reciprocal interactions with objects. The instructional strategies provide, in a natural way, opportunities for tracking, attending to task, and recalling routines. The procedures described in this article differ from those traditionally used with the severely retarded. Indices of effectiveness have been based on a 4-year study of 20 children. Findings have demonstrated the children participating in the demonstration program made remarkable gains on the criteria specified in the play routines as well as demonstrated developmental gains. 0 Project SHAPE is a fine motor curriculum, designed specifically for young severely/ profoundly handicapped children as a means of promoting their spontaneous interaction with objects. While shaping typically refers to reinforcing simple responses as a means of building complex behaviors, its usage differs in this model. In this approach, the term has to do with the major teaching technique employed in the demonstration model; shaping means manually guiding the child's fine motor activities to create developmentally appropriate habits. Naturalistic strategies are used to facilitate early developmental behavior often referred to as the sensorimotor stage.For the young child, development of fine motor control is an important prerequisite to more formal language training, and so traditional preschool programs for both handicapped and nonhandicapped children focus on the development of fine motor and/or sensorimotor behavior. The SHAPE program maximizes the young severely/profoundly handicapped child's opportunities for participating in a sensorimotor activity sequence. Many fine motor behaviors and skills, even though quite complex, can be taught to severely/profoundly retarded children if the approach to training is reinforcing and continuous over time.We realize that &dquo;teaching&dquo; children to play may seem contradictory, but the severely/ profoundly handicapped child often is unable to apply the fundamental skills necessary for spontaneous initiation of activity; consequently, he or she needs structure and practice to acquire even the basic play, behaviors. This instructional model provides a structure that calls on fine motor skills often found in simple play activities. In the curriculum (called Playforms), children are shown various ways to interact with objects within routines. The shaping techniques incorporated in the curriculum as part of the training procedure are natural approaches that give the child opportunities for tracking and scanning, for attending to the object rather than the adult, or listening to simple cues for recalling routines. These specific strategies, which emulate natural development and function, have been developed primarily from l...

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