An Exploratory Study of the Relationship Between the Training, Experience, and Selected Personality Ch4-acteristics of Teachers and the Progress of Trainable Mentally Handicapped Children., Final

Data were obtained from surveying and testing 86 teachers and 979 trainable mentally handicapped (TMH) children. Results indicated that most teachers were married and had college degrees, but had only limited experience and no relationship outside the classroom with retarded children. Over a fourth were not certified. Most preferred to teach preschool or elementary, were disturbed by behavior problems and lack of pupil response, and viewed yr patience, calmness, and a sense of humor as greatest teacher assets. They emphasized the development of social skills abilities in their pupils and regarded the goals of social skills and emotional maturity as the best liked characteristics of their pupils. Most pupils in the 40 to 49 IQ range were judged capable of intelligible speech; mongoloids outnumbered brain injured children; most pupils had been in the county programs for 2 years or less. Over half the pupils had no retarded siblings; most came from blue collar families with th