Volume 19 Number 1
October 1979

Douglas A. Dunlap, Jack Ondelacy and Evelyn Sells

IDENTIFICATION of children who are handicapped but not attending school, or otherwise not receiving an appropriate educational program, is required under P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Note-4). When the identification process involves American Indian children in reservation communities, school authorities are presented with challenges in the area of effective communication. Limited availability of news media and telephone service, poor transportation, and the prevailing use of the native language are issues to be dealt with in the endeavor to explain to parents and others what constitutes a handicapping condition, and what services are available to handicapped children.

In the Navajo community of Rough Rock, Arizona, special education staff of the Rough Rock Demonstration School used videotaped vignettes of typical special education services as a means of communication to parents. Battery-operated equipment was used to show these tapes to parents in their homes, and to meetings of community persons. An "identification specialist," a community parent experienced as an aide in a resource room, and bilingual in Navajo and English, presented the tapes and explained help available to the handicapped. Viewers were solicited for referrals of children who might be handicapped, particularly children not attending school.

The program to identify handicapped children in the Rough Rock community, with special emphasis on those children out of school, was an extension of the community involvement concept of the school into the area of special education. The school had developed a special education program including resource rooms, therapeutic counseling, and consultation to classroom teachers and residence hall staff (see Note 1) and sought to involve the community in locating and identifying unserved, eligible children.

What conditions might cause a school-age child not to attend school? Certainly the frustration experienced by children who do not succeed contributes to non-attendance. But there are other factors operating in a setting like that of Rough Rock. Most families raise sheep, cattle, or both, and there is a need for hands to help with this livestock. If a family needs to go to town for medical care or shopping, a child may be assigned babysitting responsibilities, as the extreme distances from towns make such trips an all-day occasion. Firewood, drinking water, and in some instances, stock water, must be obtained and hauled to homes. Frequently the father in a household will secure work in an off-reservation location, necessitating his being absent for extended periods of time, and a child is needed to perform home and ranch chores in his place.

The historic lack of services for handicapped children in reservation areas can also contribute to the keeping of a child at home. One mother reported that she kept her daughter at home because she had been told when the child was an infant that she would have to be sent away, off the reservation, if she was to receive an appropriate educational program. The girl was mentally retarded. Assuming that there are no services, or fearful that removal from the family is a price to be paid for special services, parents may elect to keep a handicapped child at home. And when there are manpower needs at home, a likely choice is the child who is not expected to be served by the school.

How do people in Rough Rock obtain and exchange information? That question had to be addressed before a program to communicate with parents about special education could be designed. Whereas in some communities television, radio, newspapers, and the telephone are depended upon for communication, the predominant use of the Navajo language and the lack of electrical and telephone service rendered these media impractical for the identification project. It became obvious that Rough Rock people communicate person-to-person, dropping in on a relative or friend at home, encountering others on a shopping trip, or joining together at a school, community, or religious gathering. The Rough Rock identification project, consequently, was to be accomplished by arranging to meet people in their homes, or in the places where they naturally gather, such as a place of employment.

This first feature of the communication process, personal contact with as many Rough Rock parents as possible, was the foundation for the project. Families viewed the video-taped programs in hogans, in summer shade shelters, in tents, and even outdoors on one occasion to a sheepherder. Of course, teachers at the Rough Rock Demonstration School were shown the tapes, but other employee groups, including kitchen staff, bus drivers, custodial staff, and residence hall staff also viewed the tapes. In all, 96 families were contacted in this community of about 1,200 persons.

In selecting homes to visit, priority was given to families where it was heard a school-age child was at home. Leads were obtained from speaking with teachers, school board members, trading post employees, clergy, U.S. Public Health Service personnel, and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials - anyone who might know of the existence of a handicapped child. A second priority was given to visiting some of the more remote areas of Rough Rock’s far-flung, nearly 900-square-mile catchment area. An attempt was made to reach a variety of geographic areas in the expectation that word-of-mouth would then reach families that we were unable to contact personally.

Most of the roads in the Rough Rock area are unmaintained dirt trails. Rain, snow and blown sand frequently make these roads impassable by conventional vehicle. A four-wheel drive vehicle was used for the home visits, and consequently visits were made year-round, in all kinds of-weather.

A second feature of the communication process was the visual message conveyed by videotapes. With appropriate parent permission, children were taped receiving a variety of special education services. These included speech therapy, physical therapy, perceptual-motor training, self-care skills, occupational therapy, and special reading and language instruction. The latter was illustrated by scenes of both Navajo and English learning.

The videotape format permitted stopping of the action, rewinding for subsequent viewings, and the selection of vignettes most likely to be of interest to the people being addressed. Moreover, it added a valuable dimension to the message of what special education was at the school. For "special education" is a difficult concept to convey in the Navajo language. Even in English, the term is vague and demands a certain conceptual foundation before it can begin to be well understood.

As many of those viewing the tapes had not attended school, and those who had had likely attended schools quite different from contemporary schools, a visual representation of the school program was seen as vital to the communication process of the identification project. The staff visiting a home, or addressing a group, used the tapes as a shared experience, which was always followed by a flurry of questions. A home visit alone, without the video component, would probably have been more of a one-way communication than the shared experience sought in the project.

The use of an identification specialist to narrate and explain the tapes in the Navajo language was a third feature of the communication process. Because this specialist worked in the resource room program at the school as a teacher’s aide, she could speak with experience about teaching methods used, and the children’s reactions to the special education services. Frequently materials that were being used in a tape vignette were shown and demonstrated to viewers by the specialist, who brought a sample of materials with her on the home visits or to a community meeting.

From the series of approximately ten vignettes (new ones were taped in the course of the project, and some were discarded or revised), the identification specialist selected two or three that were expected to be of most interest to the viewers. Although the decision about what to show was made prior to a viewing, that decision was sometimes changed depending upon the observed or expressed interests of the audience. The identification specialist’s role was critical in this regard, for she based these decisions upon the combination of her prior knowledge of the family, her experience with the children shown on the tapes, and her sense of the viewers’ mood and needs.

In some instances the specialist determined that a return visit would be helpful. If this was the case, an arrangement was made to do so. Sometimes it seemed appropriate to invite the parent or other community member to the school to visit the special education program. For such circumstances, and in being received into homes and meetings of community people, the work of the specialist, who was a bilingual Rough Rock parent, was essential for successful communication.

A fourth and final feature of the communication process of the identification project was the contact made with institutions or groups other than the school which were involved with Rough Rock people. Although such a small and scattered community did not appear to have many such institutions, the endeavor to contact persons with wide exposure to residents of the area proved otherwise. A group of Navajo medicine men was contacted and shown the videotapes. From the local minister came a suggestion for a home visit. As noted earlier, U.S. Public Health Service, BIA, and even trading post employees, were informed of the project.

On a cold February morning, the four-wheel drive vehicle breaks trail through a foot of new snow, following the outline of a dirt trail that skirts the base of Black Mesa. The destination is the home of Margaret Begay, whose son, Don, is 15 years old. Cerebral palsied and mentally retarded, he has not been attending school during the current year, although he did in previous years. Making the visit are the identification specialist and one of the teachers who is shown on a tape to be viewed that morning.

The visitors are well-received. Mrs. Begay is surprised to learn that they will be able to show her a television program in her hogan. She jokes that this is the first time she has seen television at home, and that she always thought she would have to have electricity before she could see television. She is the only viewer. Donald is tending the sheep that day, and has already left home.

One of the tapes selected for viewing is that of another 15-year old boy. He is shown learning self-care skills involving dressing and grooming, and in another vignette is shown practicing addition and subtraction using play money. Mrs. Begay says that she feels her son would benefit from such a program, and she agrees to re-enroll him in school.

When an additional tape is shown, that of a boy receiving speech therapy, Mrs. Begay is astonished to see this fellow speaking. She had heard that he was unable to talk at all, and is impressed that progress can be made with even so difficult a case.

Five handicapped children who were out-of-school were identified during the project. This represents slightly more than one percent of the school’s approximate enrollment at that time of 450 students. An additional four children were located who had attended school recently but had dropped out. Two of these re-enrolled as a result of the project, and work was progressing to design a program for the other two. Thus, a total of seven children enrolled as a result of the project.

Beyond the identification of specific children, the project also resulted in parent discussions about a great many children, handicapped or otherwise, through the many home visits and presentations to meetings. In some cases an arrangement was made for the regular classroom teacher to visit a home following the visit of the identification specialist, if a parent had questions about the progress of one of their children. In one instance an ill child was located, and the family was helped to obtain needed medical care. Repeated visits were made as seemed necessary, as in the case of a boy who had both special educational and medical needs. Eight visits in that instance, including homebound instruction, were made until he finally returned to school.

Certainly a strengthened relationship developed between members of the Rough Rock community and the staff of the special education program. To travel many miles over rough terrain to visit a family at their home, and to present a program to them in their native language of Navajo, conveyed respect for Rough Rock parents and their children. This message was clear to those who watched the videotapes.

The identification project recognized the obstacles to communication presented by issues of language, media, and transportation in a reservation community. Other identification projects operating in cross-cultural circumstances have utilized bilingual staff and home visits successfully as a way to overcome communication difficulties.(Note-6) The Rough Rock project added the dimension of a video program to personal contact through the native language, as a means of informing the community about special education services and locating unserved handicapped children.

1. Dunlap, Douglas A. The Human Development Program. Rough Rock Demonstration School, Rough Rock, Arizona, Spring 1973.

2. Fuchs, Estelle, and Robert Havighurst. To Live on This Earth: American Indian Education. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972.

3. Johnson, Broderick. Navajo Education at Rough Rock. Rough Rock Demonstration School, Rough Rock, Arizona, 1968.

4. Public Law 94-142, Education for All Handicapped Children Act of,1975, Final Regulations, U.S. Office of Education, 1977.

5. Roessel, Robert, Jr. "An Overview of the Rough Rock Demonstration School." Journal of American Indian Education, 7 (2), 1968.

6. Slack, Georgia. "Child find." American Education, 12 (10), December 1976.