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Thursday, May 3, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Health
Child's Play
Stories by
Yvonne Guzman Jane Rudolph
"Is is a tricky one." "A-a-n-t."
"A-a-a-n-n-t." "Right. Faster."
"Now faster." "A-n-t."
"Watch my finger," said Cathy Starke, a graduate supervisor teaching phonics to 4-year-old Thomas Joseph.
Starke was holding up a chart with the word "ant" spelled out four different times. Below each spelling was an arrow, or a set of arrows, that indicated to the child how long to sound out the word. She began
to move her finger slowly across the last word's arrow.
"When my finger comes up, you have to be finished," she said. "Act."
Ant. "Ant. Good job. Thomas."
Thomas is one of 22 children in the EduCare class at Haworth Hall, EduCare is one part of the Edna A; Hill Child Development Laboratory.
Jacob, 5, learns to crawl with the help of paraprofessional Michelle Loiselle at the Special Education Early Intervention Program
Study lauds faculty, students
Members of the KU Special Education doctoral program have reason to be proud, according to a report by the Journal of Special Education.
The study, which surveyed faculty members from all universities offering special education doctorates, said KU's program had the most distinguished faculty in the pre-prepared students in the nation.
KU's faculty is distinguished by the fact that members are extremely student-oriented, said Teresa Heller, a professor of graduate studies in special
education. They are engaged in top research, but also are committed to good teaching.
The program also benefits from its extremely talented students, Whelan said.
KU has graduated about 200 doctoral students in special education since 1965. Most are still in the field.
"They tend to stay with it," Whelan said. "And many of them in their own right are well known nationally and internationally. They're producing their own students."
works to explore the biological and behavioral aspects of disabilities, the ways in which technological advances can benefit individuals with disabilities, and the best methods for integrating students with disabilities into regular programs, he said. The program is designed to help helping individuals with disabilities to lead more satisfying lives.
The special education program
"We're trying to teach what we research and research what we teach, and then disseminate that information through service and publication," Whelan said. "All in all, the institution is identified as a
leader in programs about disability."
A unique resource at KU for students are the special education preschools in Haworth. The classrooms, such as the Edna Hill preschools, serve three purposes: educational experience for students and bases for research for faculty and students.
The teaching approach at the school is multi-disciplinary. The children are exposed to a wide range of learning, sensory speech, motor and music therapy.
Preschoolers learn through behavior modification
The Edna A. Hill Child Development Lab is one of the two largest systems of laboratory preschools in the nation. These preschools, in addition to serving the community, function as a laboratory for future teachers and a setting for faculty and students.
Five part- and full-time classes exist, serving about 80 students, said Alita Cooper, assistant director of admissions, curriculum and advising for the lab.
The EduCare class has 22 children of various races and income levels. Children are between the ages of 2 $ \frac{1}{2} $ and 6.
Classes run from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. During this time, the children play and participate in various educational activities. Specific times are devoted to learning about numbers, language, pattern matching, hand-
writing, independence and safety.
The children also play outdoors,
eat lunch and have rest periods.
When working with the children, EduCare teachers use behavior modification techniques to encourage and discourage disruptions behavior.
EduCare is the only preschool at the Edna Hill Labs that operates full time.
can later be exchanged for permission to play computer games, to sit on the teacher's lap during a story or a variety of other rewards.
For example, teachers issue tokens to children who have demonstrated good behavior. Tokens
"Basicly what they they're studying is how children learn and what affects how and what they learn." *Dudih Scheff, office manager.*
Faculty champions behavior program
Applied behavior analysis is a relatively new field and one that was established largely by faculty members at the University of Kansas, said Don Bushel, professor of human development.
The field began to attract recognition during the 1980s, at the same time that many distinguished faculty members were affiliated to the University, Bushell hall.
Applied behavior analysis& originally was defined in an article written by three KU faculty members in 1868. It attempts to determine the causes of human behavior and develop methods of behaviorism to be applied using a group of theories called behaviorism
One of the things that distinguishes this system from others is the emphasis placed on the analysis of applied techniques, said Ed Morris, professor of human development.
"If it doesn't work, we go back and tinker a little more," he said. "If it does, we learn something."
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, first published in 1968, was the first journal to emerge in the field. Its first three editors were the KU faculty members who wrote the original article on the subject, Bushell said. Two are still members of the KU faculty.
The University has dominated the field since then, Bushell said. It has produced three presidents of the association for Behavior Analysts.
KU researchers have initiated numerous programs that have been adopted nationwide, Bushell said. One example is the Teaching Family Model, a system of juvenile rehabilitation.
The system came from a home in Lawrence called Achievement Place, established by a number of men from the University and Lawrence.
Achievement Place has two professionally trained teaching parents, about or seven and Ms. Wolf, of the founders of the program.
Larry Carter, assistant director of Headquarters. 1419 Massachusetts St., takes a call at the counseling center.
Gretchen Pipoenger/KAN5AN
Headquarters expands Lawrence effort
By Mark McHugh
Kansan staff writer
About a month ago, a 12-year-old girl called headquarters because she was worried about the ozone layer caused by dilapidation of the environment.
Karen, a volunteer at Headquarters Inc., 1419 Massachusetts St. answered the phone and told the girl that everything would be all right. The girl's mother was not home, Karen said, so she talked to her.
Headquarters, at 841-2345, is a 24-hour personal crisis and short-term counseling center that takes calls from anyone who is considering suicide or who needs a friend on the phone.
"I think she just called because she was home alone and scared, and she
The center also provides emergency shelter for anyone in need such as battered women and runaways. The center has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. It is staffed by volunteers and paid staff members. KU students constitute half of the 75-member staff.
Headquarters was established in December 1969 by KU Students who were concerned about drug abuse among high-school students, said Larry Carter, assistant director at Headquarters.
had to direct her fear somewhere else," said Karen, whose last name had to be withheld because of the lack of privacy policy concerning volunteers.
Now in its 20th year, the center has expanded to provide suicide
Carter, who has been working at Headquarters for 10 years, said that in the past two decades, Headquarters had moved several times. Until last year, he said, he passed Massachusetts streets. Before that it was in the 1100 block of Kentucky.
Last year, Headquarters provided emergency housing for 755 people. Carter said, and more than 18,000 people called for assistance.
intervention and information about alcohol, drugs, AIDS and health and sexuality concerns.
Karen said people requesting shelter had to perform a chore, such as sweeping the floor; to stay there provided food for people themselves.
"The best thing about Headquarters is that we're open 24 hours and
that we're fine," Carter said. "We're probably about the safest first option that you can call because we can address the problem immediately. As far as we know, we're the oldest place like this."
Carter said volunteers at Headquarters had to go through a selection process and committee interview at the house before being hired. Then they are selected for a 90-hour training program.
Headquarters' 1993 budget is $62,000. It primarily is financed by United Way, which donated $40,000 with a secondary donation from KU Student Senate; totaling $16,000. Other money comes from Lawrence's city liquor tax and other donations.
Worker shortage in health services challenges nation
The Associated Press
Intenlisted recruitment, special programs, and higher salaries are being put to work as shortages in health and health care specialties continue.
**Genetic counselors.** According to a representative of Sarah Lawrence College, there are only 950 genetic counselors certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics, more than half of whom received their training at the Bronxville, N.Y., college.
There were 1.6 million registered nurses in 1988, according to a report recently sent to Congress by Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan. But the Association of Academic Health Centers, representing about 100 large health complexes in the U.S., has an additional 137,000 nurses were needed to fill vacancies in hospitals and nursing homes.
Pace's Leinhard School of Nursing in Westchester County and New York City said it was launching an all-out effort to find and train nurses, recruiting not only in high schools but in other disciplines and careers.
A recent salary survey by Working Woman Magazine puts the national pay average for nurses between $37,000 and $40,000. Pace University in New York says the starting salary in the metropolitan area is $35,000.
One of its programs is nursing summer camp for promising high school candidates in Westchester. Another project, in cooperation with a group of New York City schools, enables hospital workers to upgrade their careers through nursing education. Lienhard also has a combined degree program that allows a degree holder in one field to complete requirements for an initial nursing degree in as little as a year.
She said low enrollments, overwork, burnout and low salary growth were among the causes. In cytotechnology, the analysis of cells to diagnose cancer and other diseases, technicians are restricted by new federal rules limiting how many slides they are allowed to review in one day.
Other healthcare specialists experiencing shortages include:
- Laboratory technicians, Dr. Betty Hatten, chairman of the University of Oklahoma's Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department, cited a survey that revealed that 9.3 percent of medical technologist and 13.8 percent of cytotechnologist positions across the country are vacant.
A recent salary survey by Working Woman Magazine puts the national pay average for nurses between $37,000 and $40,000.
These specialists are involved in the screening and diagnosis of such disorders as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, neurofibromatosis or cranio-facial disorders. They also work with families, helping them adjust to the impact of these conditions.
In 1969, Sarah Lawrence became the first school in the nation to establish a master's level program in genetic counseling. It has established affiliations with more than 30 med schools and two top-tier repopulation New York area. College officials say field work placement with leading researchers at area institutions is readily available for students with research interests.
Optometrists. Optometry schools reported only 1,831 applicants for 1,214 spaces in 1989, compared to 2,022 applicants for 1,196 spaces the previous year, according to the American Optometric Association.
AOA officials say that the country needs more optometrists as the population ages but that there are fewer people seeking a career in the field.
Optometrists averaged net incomes of $60,000 in 1988, with an average of more than $40,000 during the year of practice, AOA officials said.
Support staffs, in contrast to health care specialists, are being cut by many hospitals and institutions, which are trying tighter reimbursement restrictions.