Ladies and Gentlemen, It is an honour for me to open this National Conference. I have been most impressed by the detail and obvious depth of your agenda over the next 3½ days. I have also noted the eminence and experience of the people who will be speaking at the Conference.

The Makaton Vocabulary was devised by the author over ten years ago. It began as a small piece of work in response to a clinical need and is now extensively used all over the U.K. with children and adults who have communication and language difficulties.

Surveys carried out over the past five years (Reid, Jones & Kiernan) into the use of signing and symbols in schools for children who are mentally handicapped throughout the U.K. have shown the following growth of the scheme.

In the United States, a certain percentage of the students cannot meet certain requirements of the school. A portion of these students (approximately 12% of the total school population) are identified as having some handicapping condition, i.e. deaf, blind, mentally retarded, learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, or orthopedically handicapped. Many of these identified students with mild to moderate handicaps are served in resource programs. When placed in a resource program, students also receive a portion of their academic instruction in a regular education classroom. Special education resource teachers support the regular program efforts by providing specific assessment of the students academic and social/emotional abilities, some direct instruction to the student, as well as consultation with regular classroom teachers, parents, and other specialists concerned with a student’s progress.

What kind of legal scene will the special educator face in the 1990’s? It will be a scene whose genesis was in the bright idealism of the 1960’s. It will be marked by much greater accountability by the teaching profession for its mistakes and shortcomings than is possible under existing legal mechanisms. It will be marked by much greater public scrutiny and influence over educational policy making than is possible under the last vestiges of the Westminster system by which we are presently governed. It will be marked by greater use of the federal education funding power to achieve observance of human rights in the educational context, for both public and private sectors, than is at present politically possible. And it will be marked by the introduction of a wide range of external policing authorities, acting as watch dogs for students’ and parents’ human and legal rights.

Children who are classified as either emotionally disturbed or behavior disordered appear to stress school systems perhaps more intensely than any other handicapping condition. The behavioral characteristics of this population of students are extremely aversive to peers and adult social agents (teachers, parents) who must interact with them on a daily basis. Frequently, these children disrupt the instructional process for themselves and others, defy the teacher, and engage in forms of social behavior that are considered either inappropriate to the school setting (tantrumming, disturbing others, fighting) or are severe violations of social norms (stealing, self abuse).

The Crossroads Special Education Task Group was formed in Queensland early in 1983 at the request of the Joint Board of Christian Education of Australia and New Zealand. Crossroads is an Australia wide, inter-church organisation which promotes the welfare of handicapped persons through:

• (a) regular club programs which have spirtual, recreational, educational and social aspects;

• (b) holiday activities under structured leadership and help from “enablers”;

• (c) special assistance to handicapped persons in church and Sunday school;

• (d) provision of religious education programsin State special schools;

• (e) chaplaincies to sheltered employment centres and institutions.