نشریه کودکان استثنایی
سال سوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 7، بهار 1382)

To investigate the relation between Iron deficiency and school achievement in mentally retarded students whose age ranged 7 to 18 years, the results of biochemical and hematological blood tests of 49 students and their average scores were studied. The blood tests included serum Iron, total Iron Binding Capacity, Transferring Saturated and Ferritin. There was a significant con-elation between the students' first semester average score and their serum Iron (P=.02) and Transferrin Saturated (p=.05). Based on standards presented in Tietz for three hematological indexes of Serum Iron, Transferrin Saturated and Ferritin, the students were divided into two groups with and without Iron deficiency. Then, the average scores of the two groups were compared; the difference was significant only in case of serum Iron (p=.03). The second semester average scores of those students who were exposed to Iron deficiency anemia with regard to serum Ferritin and had received Iron supplement, as compared with their first semester average scores and the healthy students' average scores, showed an increase of 2.5 times. The paired T-test indicated that there was a significant difference between the students' average scores before and after taking Iron supplement.

This research has been carried out to investigate the educational programs for the students with behavioral disorders in centers that take part in the education of these students. These centers include: special schools for the students with behavioral disorders, places referred to as reference rooms and the instructional classes in hospitals psychiatric gates for children. The data pertaining to 4 considered research indexes were gathered utilizing a researcher- made questionnaire and interviews with educational staff in above- mentioned centers. The evaluated indexes are: 1. The process of referral and diagnosis; 2. Provision of facilities; 3.Educational schedules and services; 4. The professional competency of the educational staff. The most important results regarding each of the indexes are as follows: The process of diagnosis is not preceded as well as expected in special schools and reference rooms; this is due to the tack of diagnostic instruments and experts in domain of behavioral disorders. Nevertheless, this process is carried out in a more precise and effective method in hospitals. The places allocated for classes, counseling activities and psychological procedures, educational and supplementary materials in none of the centers are evaluated as appropriate and sufficient. The rehabilitation services have been reported to be inadequate. Over 2/3 of the educational staff believe that their knowledge about the behavior modification techniques, behavioral disorders and teaching methods is insufficient. These findings emphasize the necessity of revising and reforming the educational programs for the students with behavioral disorders.

Early intervention programs are used to improve or decrease biological and environmental difficulties in. young children with special needs, or those children who are exposed to undesired environmental factors. Biological difficulties include: prematurely, respiratory problems, brain damage, genetic problems, infectious diseases, toxins and drugs. The environmental factors which may expose the young children to the risk of disability are: parental illiteracy, economic and nutrition problems, family stress, large size of family and incorrect beliefs about child rearing methods. Since young children's brains have more plasticity and are more adjustable to change and learning as compared with adults' brains, regarding the importance of critical period of development, and considering that all parents are not capable of giving proper instructions to their children, it is necessary to contrive and execute effective early intervention programs for at risk children. Due to the availability of medical facilities, special education, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, preschool education and social work in Iran, contriving and effective execution of these programs are quite possible. In addition to investigating the details of early intervention programs, this article presents a model of early intervention program which is specifically appropriate for administration in Iran.

This research is aimed at investigating the impact of "inclusion" on English language learning in senior high school male blind students. The research was carried out using the whole population (26 students) of blind male students in Tehran senior high schools in academic year of 2001-2002. Six sighted students whose mean scores were within the range of ±1 standard deviation from the mean score of the blind students, were selected out of 30 students. All the subjects (32students) were divided into two experimental (including 6 sighted and 10 blind students) and control (including 16 blind students) groups. The placement of the blind students was done randomly. Two multiple choice tests provided by Ministry of Education were used as data gathering instruments. The instruments contained items of linguistics and writing which were used to assess linguistic skills such as vocabulary, understanding of concepts, sentence structure and writing abilities, respectively. The experimental group received language instructions through team work in an inclusive setting. The data were analyzed using inferential statistics. The results indicated that the current methods of language instruction to the blind are not effective due to the lack of interaction between blind and sighted students. However, the blind students are able to carry on their education in inclusive senior high schools taking advantage of modifying methods and supplementary devices and materials.

This research aims to investigate and compare the patterns of composition writing in dyslexic and dysgraphic Students of fourth and fifth grades in primary schools of Tehran and their normal peers. Using the accessible sampling method, 20 students who were diagnosed as dyslexic and dysgraphic in Yousefabad Learning Disorders Center, were selected in each grade. The control group consisted of 40 normal male students in fourth and fifth grades who were selected through systematic cluster sampling. The two groups were matched. The research instrument included three titles for composition writing as follows: 1. Write a composition about your teacher: 2. Write a composition about yourself; 3. Write a composition about the TV show you like. These three titles were chosen regarding the developmental stage of the students. To control the variable of parental help in writing the compositions, each student was asked to write the compositions within three different sessions in school counseling room. The obtained compositions were compared with regard to features such as mean of length and number of sentences, incomplete sentences, grammatical characteristics in 12 domains and spelling characteristics in 10 domains through analysis of variance and Tukey Tests. The results indicated that, the most distinguished characteristics of composition writing in students with dyslexia and dysgraphia in fourth and fifth grades pertain to grammatical difficulties, incapability of organizing the written text, shortness ot sentences and text, lack of desired content, incomplete sentences and using conversational words.