Teaching Moral Values Through Behavior Modification (review)

Reviews Leisure Time Activities for Deaf-Blind Children, Lillian Mikalonis, Jeanne Huffman, Michael Gaddy, Joyce Gillis, and G. Heater, 122 pp., $12.95, Joyce Motion Picture Co., 18702 Bryant St., Northridge, California 91324, 1975. Nearly 100 separate projects, games, learning experiences and activities have been planned and outlined for sharing and communicating with deaf-blind children in this book. The manual is designed for parents, foster parents, relatives and friends of deaf-blind children. The activities were created for leisure time, when the child is not engaged in a structured educational school program. Available also are several mini-movie cartridges which demonstrate the Tadoma Method, hand positions, correct postures, clinical activities, the actual performance of games and activities with deaf-blind children. Marcia Kessler, M.A. Hearing Impaired Program Golden West College Huntington Beach, Calif. 92647 Behavioral Pediatrics and Child Development, A Clinical Handbook, Thomas J. Kenny, Ph.D. and Raymond L. Clemmens, M.D., F.A.A.P., 209 pp., $13.50, The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, Maryland, 21202. This book, written for physicians and medical students, is concerned with "The Interface of Pediatric Psychology and Child Development." That adolescence is not discussed is made clear only when well into the text. The first half consists of a summary of child development, and some of the problems that are met by the pediatrician and psychologist. Some of the controversies in behavior are covered briefly and clearly, and there are 15 pages devoted to speech, hearing and communication . The term "dysacusis" is used in one of the case examples given at the end of the book, but nowhere is the term defined. The widely used, and abused, concept of autism is not mentioned. Although a chapter is devoted to the role of the physician as a "child advocate," nowhere is mention made of the effects of poverty, emotional , or physical deprivation, or the role of the "child advocate" in speaking for the victims of these conditions. From the book one would get the impression that professionals interested in children exist only closely associated with a university and dealing largely with children of "middle class" parents. The chapter devoted to interview techniques and counselling would be found confusing by many students. Both this chapter and the illustrative cases at the end of the book seem out of place in what the authors describe as a "handbook ." The space would have been used better in providing more comprehensive coverage. /. M. Stephenson, M.A., M.B., F.R.C.P. Children's Hospital Diagnostic Centre 901 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver 9, British Columbia, Canada V5Z 1M9 Talk With Me, Communication With The MultiHandicapped Deaf, Jeanne Huffman, Bobbi Hoffman, David Gransee, Anne Fox, Juanita James, and Joseph Schmitz, 296 pp., $14.95, Joyce Motion Picture Co., 18702 Bryant St., Northridge, California 91324, 1975. Talk With Me consists of a specific vocabulary of over 400 signs, games, recipes, activities and practice sentences for meaningful communication experiences with multi-handicapped deaf children. The manual is designed for use with parents and families, teachers and personnel in state hospitals, schools and centers and all other persons who have direct contact with multi-handicapped deaf children. Several quick flick movie cartridges which show signs and numbers in motion can also be ordered. The manual was developed by the Deaf Task Force composed of deaf and hearing professionals under the California Department of Health. Marcia Kessler, M. A. Hearing Impaired Program Golden West College Huntington Beach, Calif. 92647 Teaching Moral Values Through Behavior Modification , Joan M. Sayre and James E. Mack, illustrated by June A. Howard, 46 pp. teacher's manual and 64 sequence picture cards, no price listed, The Interstate Printers & Publishers, Inc., Danville, Illinois, 61832, 1974. This easy-to-use kit was designed for use with primary level children to help them understand the meaning of moral values through an "open-ended" approach. A very short story without an ending is read to the class for each lesson. The story can be retold by students A.A.O. I February 1980 Reviews using the cleverly drawn sequence cards related to that lesson. The children are encouraged to find as many solutions as possible for each story problem...