TEACHING GENERALIZED RECEPTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE BEHIND-FRONT DISCRIMINATIONS TO TWO RETARDED CHILDREN1

Typically, a generalized discrimination for two linguistic forms (e.g., “behind the (noun)” and “in front of the (noun)”) has been developed in a sequence of three treatment conditions, with generative usage developed for each form consecutively in the first two conditions and a generalized discrimination developed for those forms in the third condition. Moreover, generalized discriminations have typically been measured by a set of unreinforced probes, rather than by first-trial performances across a series of new tasks, as in some studies that have taught generative usage of a single form of language. In this study, successive sets of instructions were presented to two children. Each set contained four tasks, the four possible combinations of two new nouns with the linguistic forms “Put the (noun) behind the (noun)” and “Put the (noun) in front of the (noun)”. For each set, receptive usage of nouns was taught, and then the four instructions were presented, once each, to test for generative usage of the prepositional forms. First-trial performances were never prompted. After a baseline of five sets of tasks, correct first-trial performances earned praise and tokens. Also, in each set with three or fewer such performances, the specific receptive discriminations were taught to a criterion before presentation of the next set. Successive sets were presented until all first-trial performances were correct in five consecutive sets, whereupon this generalized discrimination was reversed and subsequently reinstated. Similar procedures were then used to teach the same children a generalized productive-discrimination for the forms “behind the (noun)” and “in front of the (noun)”. This study demonstrated the development of generalized receptive and productive behind-front discriminations without the prior development of generative usage in each linguistic form and with measurement of the generalized discrimination across first-trial performances. The method may offer a less time-consuming procedure for the development and measurement of generalized discriminations in receptive and productive language.     

DEVELOPING GENERALIZED BEHAVIOR-MODIFICATION SKILLS IN HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS WORKING WITH RETARDED CHILDREN1

Seven high-school trainees each conducted training sessions with two profoundly retarded children. Each trainee was asked to teach one child to follow the instruction “Bring ball” and the other child to follow the instructions “Sit down” and “Come here”. During baseline sessions, before the trainees had been instructed in behavior-modification techniques, no trainee successfully taught either child to follow the instructions. After differing numbers of baseline sessions, trainees were exposed to training procedures designed to teach them to teach one child to follow the instruction “Bring ball”. The training procedures consisted of videotaped modelling, rehearsal, and corrective feedback and praise. Following the training procedures, four of the seven trainees successfully taught their child to follow the instruction “Bring ball”. Further, all trainees were able to teach their other children to follow the instructions “Sit down” and “Come here”, even though they had received no modelling, rehearsal, or feedback on how to teach the children to follow these instructions. The ability of the trainees to teach new behaviors to different children indicates the development of generalized skills in behavior modification.     

IMPROVING CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR IN MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN THROUGH CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING

Except for a few studies, most research investigating correspondence training procedures has been more analogue in nature. The purpose of the present set of studies was to examine whether a “say-do” correspondence training technique could be used with children in special education classes to improve classroom behavior. The specific behaviors targeted for change included: out-of-seat behavior (Experiment 1), sitting posture (Experiment 2), and on-task behavior (Experiment 3). The say-do procedure used in Experiment 1 resembled that of previous studies, whereas that in Experiment 2 was more elaborate in the specificity of verbal statements required from the children and the feedback given them. The training procedure in Experiment 3 used a format similar to the say-do approach, but stressed visual rather than verbal cuing because it was used with nonverbal children. All three studies used single-subject designs and examined maintenance and/or generalization questions. Experiments 2 and 3 also evaluated whether concomitant changes in performance on academic tasks occurred. The results of the three studies provide strong evidence that correspondence training can be effectively used with educationally handicapped children. Moreover, the successful modification of the “say-do” to a “show-do” procedure in Experiment 3 points out the flexibility of the correspondence training approach.     

TWO-TO-ONE versus ONE-TO-ONE STUDENT-TEACHER RATIOS IN THE OPERANT VERBAL TRAINING OF RETARDED CHILDREN1

The operant training of two retarded children simultaneously on a picture-naming task was investigated as an alternative to the more commonly reported one-to-one student-teacher ratio. In Experiment I, two conditions were compared in which the children received primary reinforcement on a fixed-ratio schedule for responding correctly on prompt and probe trials in a standardized picture-naming procedure. During the “Group Condition”, the experimenter alternated from one child to the other after each primary reinforcement, after each incorrect response, after each response omission, and after each 10-sec period in which a child did not “attend” (by making a trial-initiating response) when it was his or her turn to be worked with. During the “Individual Condition”, the experimenter worked with only one child, and presented trials whenever the child made attending responses. Experiment I demonstrated that the Group Condition was more efficient than the Individual Condition in terms of total correct responses and total pictures learned per unit of training time. Incidental learning was also found in that the children learned some of each others' pictures as well as their own, thus indicating a further advantage of the larger student-teacher ratio. In Experiment II, an attempt was made to equate the two conditions, except for the presence of two children in the Group Condition, by ignoring the child in the Individual Condition for brief periods equal to those that occurred in the Group Condition when the experimenter presented training trials to the other child. The results demonstrated that the greater efficiency of the Group Condition was not due to the manner in which training time was allocated to the two members of a group. It also replicated the finding that the children learned some of each others' words in the Group Condition.     

TRAINING AND GENERALIZATION OF REACH-GRASP BEHAVIOR IN BLIND,RETARDED YOUNG CHILDREN

The effects of a graduated prompting treatment procedure were analyzed in three phases of an experiment on the training and generalization of reaching-grasp responding in 2- to 4-year-old blind, severely or profoundly retarded children. In Phase 1, we used a multiple-baseline across-subjects design to investigate the effectiveness of the treatment on midline reach-grasp responding. In Phase 2, we used a reversal design to investigate the effects of repeated implementations and withdrawals of the treatment. In both phases, generalization to right and left positions was measured. In Phase 3, in a multiple-baseline across-responses design, the treatment was implemented in right and left positions. Also in Phase 3, shift of stimulus control from toy-sound to verbal instructions was measured. The results showed that (a) the graduated prompting procedure was effective in training reach-grasp responding in all three children; (b) for one child, the effects were durable over repeated applications of the treatment procedure, but were not maintained during withdrawals; (c) for another child, the treatment procedure was effective in teaching reach-grasp responding in all three positions; and (d) for the same child, training of reach-grasp responding generalized to toys presented without sound, given only the verbal instruction.     

TRAINING TEACHERS IN GENERALIZED WRITING OF BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION PROGRAMS FOR MULTIHANDICAPPED DEAF CHILDREN

In contrast to previous studies where teachers were instructed how to implement behavior modification programs designed by an experimenter, teachers in the present experiment were taught how to write as well as implement behavior modification programs. The generalized effects of two training conditions on teacher and pupil behaviors were assessed by a multiple baseline design where, following baseline, two teachers of multihandicapped deaf children were taught to set objectives and measure pupil performance (measurement training). Later, through a training manual, they learned a general problem-solving approach to writing behavior modification programs (programming training). After both training conditions, experimenter feedback was given for teachers' application of training to a target behavior for one pupil and generalization was measured across target behaviors for the same pupil and across pupils. It was found that measurement training had little general effect on either teacher behavior or pupil behavior. However, after programming training, teachers increased their program writing and correct use of behavior modification procedures and generalized this training across pupils and target behaviors. Along with these effects, there was improvement in pupil behaviors. Possible explanations for generalized effects of teacher training were considered.     

DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT OF CORRECT RESPONSES TO PROBES AND PROMPTS IN PICTURE-NAME TRAINING WITH SEVERELY RETARDED CHILDREN

A systematic sequence of prompt and probe trials was used to teach picture names to three severely retarded children. On prompt trials the experimenter presented a picture and said the picture name for the child to imitate; on probe trials the experimenter did not name the picture. A procedure whereby correct responses to prompts and probes were nondifferentially reinforced was compared with procedures whereby correct responses to prompts and probes were differentially reinforced according to separate and independent schedules of primary reinforcement. In Phase 1, correct responses to prompts and probes were reinforced nondifferentially on a fixed ratio (FR) 6 or 8 schedule; in Phase 2, correct responses to prompts were reinforced on the FR schedule and correct responses to probes were reinforced on an FR schedule of the same value; in Phase 3, correct responses to prompts were reinforced on the FR schedule and correct responses to probes were reinforced on a continuous reinforcement (CRF; every correct response reinforced) schedule; in Phase 4, correct responses to prompts were reinforced on a CRF schedule and correct responses to probes were reinforced on the FR schedule; in Phase 5, a reversal to the conditions of Phase 3 was conducted. For all three children, the FR schedule for correct responses to prompts combined with the CRF schedule for correct responses to probes (Phases 3 and 5) generated the highest number of correct responses to probes, the highest accuracy (correct responses relative to correct responses plus errors) on probe trials, and the highest rate of learning to name pictures.     

弱智儿童视觉-动作控制的实验研究

该研究探讨了弱智儿童视觉-动作控制能力。弱智儿童被试30人,平均年龄13.5岁,平均智商53.9。实验结果与正常人的结果作了比较。结果显示,弱智儿童的视觉-动作控制能力只相当五六岁正常儿童的水平,远落后于正常中青年及老年的水平。这表明,智力缺陷与发展水平对人的视觉-动作控制能力有明显影响。     

PROGRAMMING THE GENERALIZATION OF A GREETING RESPONSE IN FOUR RETARDED CHILDREN1

Reinforcement techniques of prompting and shaping were employed to develop hand-waving, a useful social greeting response, in four institutionalized retarded subjects. A multiple-baseline design across subjects demonstrated the reliable functioning of the training procedures. Specifically, it showed that training and maintenance of the greeting response by one experimenter was not usually sufficient for generalization of the response to the more than 20 other members of the institution staff who had not participated in the training of the response. However, high levels of generalization to staff members were recorded for three subjects over periods ranging from one to six months after a second experimenter trained and maintained the response in conjunction with the first experimenter. The fourth subject, although never receiving training by a second experimenter, showed similar results following a second training by the first experimenter.     

PRODUCING GENERALIZED JOB INITIATIVE IN SEVERELY MENTALLY RETARDED SHELTERED WORKERS

The development of generalized job initiative was examined with three severely retarded men working in an industrial assembly area of a sheltered workshop. Interventions included discrimination training, role-play training, and self-monitoring. For each participant, training was applied sequentially to three sets of job initiative behaviors. Intensive training was required to establish the first set of job initiative behaviors; however, the second and third sets of job initiative behaviors were learned with only discrimination training. The discussion summarizes the findings and suggests research needed to develop more powerful learning-to-learn paradigms.     

TRAINING MENTALLY RETARDED ADOLESCENTS TO BRUSH THEIR TEETH1

The need for self-care by retarded individuals in behaviors such as brushing teeth led to the development and evaluation of a comprehensive toothbrushing program that included a task analysis and training procedure specific to each component of the task analysis. Eight mentally retarded adolescents, in two groups, individually received acquisition training that included scheduled opportunities for independent performances, verbal instruction, modelling, demonstration, and physical assistance. The first group of four subjects received token plus social reinforcement; the second received only social reinforcement. All eight subjects showed improved toothbrushing behaviors when compared to baseline. Six of the eight subjects correctly performed all toothbrushing steps in two of three consecutive sessions. The study emphasizes the need for systematic program development and evaluation.     

GENERALIZING ARTICULATION TRAINING WITH TRAINABLE MENTALLY RETARDED SUBJECTS1

A multiple-baseline technique was used to evaluate generalization effects during articulation training with trainable mentally retarded subjects. Four target words were selected for each subject on the basis of whether the subject could articulate the word correctly when it was modelled but could not articulate the word correctly in response to a picture of it. Five different settings were selected for generalization probing and training for each subject. In Setting 1, Experimenter 1 initiated training sequentially on all four target words for each subject. Other experimenters probed for correct articulation generalization in four other settings. Training was initiated in these four other settings sequentially only if correct responding failed to generalize to a setting. Results indicated that it was necessary to initiate training on at least three of the four selected target words in at least one additional setting with an additional trainer before correct responding generalized to untrained settings.     

TRANSFER BETWEEN RECEPTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE LANGUAGE IN DEVELOPMENT ALLY DISABLED CHILDREN

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between receptive and productive language acquisition in developmentally disabled children. A single-subject operant methodology was employed to evaluate the effect of training in one mode on performance in the other mode. Noun labels for pictured objects were used as the unit of analysis. Six children with severe language deficits participated in the experiment. Each subject learning to identify a different set of five pictures in each of four successively administered training conditions. In the first condition, a set of pictures was trained in the productive mode. In the second condition, a different set was trained in the receptive mode. These training conditions were then repeated using two additional sets of pictures. Training was done using reinforcement for correct responses and prompting for incorrect responses. Nonreinforced probes were conducted throughout training to assess performance in the untrained mode. The pictures in each set were trained successively so that transfer across the language modes could be studied separately for each response trained. All subjects successfully met the criteria for learning each picture set in both the receptive and productive training conditions. The probe data showed that opposite-modality performance improved as a function of both types of training, although performance levels differed. After productive training, five of six subjects' performance was highly accurate on receptive probes. By contrast, receptive training resulted in limited correct productive performance. Transfer from receptive training was negatively related to subjects' use of extra-experimental labels on productive probe trials. In addition to these competing response errors, subjects frequently made articulation errors. The findings suggest that for retarded children similar to those studied here, productive training will be sufficient to establish accurate receptive performance on vocabulary tasks. However, receptive training does not appear to be either a necessary or a sufficient condition for productive performance. The results do not support the reception-then-production training sequence based on normal language development.     

SOME EFFECTS OF REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES IN TEACHING PICTURE NAMES TO RETARDED CHILDREN1

The effects of several different schedules of primary reinforcement were compared in a picture-naming task with retarded children. In Experiment I, number of correct responses and learning rate were higher under fixed-ratio schedules than under continuous reinforcement. In Experiment II, number of correct responses and learning rate tended to be greater under intermediate than under low or high fixed-ratio schedules. In Experiment III, number of correct responses was higher under interlocking schedules, in which the response requirement increased with time following the previous reinforcement, than under comparable fixed-ratio schedules. Learning rates were generally low and, perhaps because of this, not very different under the two types of schedules in this experiment. Accuracy (i.e., proportion of trials on which correct responses occurred) was typically high and insensitive to variations in schedule and schedule parameter throughout each experiment.     

AN ALTERNATING TREATMENTS COMPARISON OF ORAL AND TOTAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING WITH MINIMALLY VERBAL RETARDED CHILDREN

This study was a comparison of the effects of oral speech with total communication (speech plus sign language) training on the ability of mentally retarded children to repeat 4-word sentences. Three children were chosen who used single words to communicate but who did not combine words into complete sentences. Three sentence pairs were trained, with each pair having one sentence trained using oral methods and an equivalent one trained using the total communication approach. Both training procedures involved chaining sentence parts, reinforcement, and prompting. Oral methods involved presenting vocal stimuli and requiring vocal responses whereas total communication methods involved presenting vocal and signed stimuli and requiring vocal and signed responses. For the initial sentence pair with each child, an alternating treatments design was used to determine the relative efficacy of the two language training approaches. This was repeated with a second and third sentence pair using a multiprobe technique within a multiple baseline design. Results pointed to the superiority of the total communication approach in facilitating sentence repetition. Possible explanations of these results are offered and the utility of the alternating treatments experimental design is discussed.     

GENERALIZATION OF NAMING RESPONSES TO OBJECTS IN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AS A FUNCTION OF TRAINING STIMULUS MODALITY WITH RETARDED CHILDREN

Picture-cards, photographs, and real objects were compared as training stimuli in order to determine which best facilitated the generalization of naming responses learned in a special training room to real objects in the natural environments of four retarded children. The amount of transfer of naming behavior between the three stimulus modes and the average amount of training time required per stimulus mode were also assessed. Three of the four children displayed considerably more generalization to the real objects in the natural environment when they were trained with real objects. The fourth child displayed substantial generalization regardless of the training stimulus mode. No particular training stimulus mode clearly facilitated the transfer of naming responses to other modes or greatly reduced training time. The results of two supplementary procedures conducted with one child showed that: (1) training in several environments facilitated generalization to real objects in the natural environment when real objects were used as training stimuli but not when picture-cards were used, and (2) transfer from picture-cards to real objects was facilitated by training other picture-cards and the real objects portrayed by them at the same time.     

COMPARISON OF MODELLING AND REINFORCEMENT PROCEDURES IN INCREASING QUESTION-ASKING OF MILDLY RETARDED CHILDREN1

Questioning is an important skill, particularly for retarded children with deficits in accumulated information. Recent strategies for modifying a variety of verbal behaviors have included both token reinforcement systems and modelling procedures. However, the relative effectiveness (i.e., the rate of behavior change) of certain reinforcement procedures, especially with low base-rate behavior (used alone) have recently been questioned. The present study, using an ABAB design, compared the effect of a Token reinforcement system, a Trainer-Model procedure, and a combination of the two procedures on increasing the rate of question-asking. Each condition was in effect for six sessions. Groups of four mildly retarded children (mean age: 10.1 yr) were prompted to ask questions about large photographs, and each of their questions was immediately answered. For the Model group, the Trainer modelled four questions for each subject for each photograph. For the Token group, each question earned the subject a point, which was exchangeable after the session for various items (e.g., candy, ice cream) from a “store”. For the Modelling plus Token group, the procedures were combined. The Model and the Control groups were yoked to receive the same amount of candy as the Token and the Model plus Token groups for behaviors other than question-asking (i.e., being polite). The results indicated that during Baseline conditions, performance across groups was comparable and that the performance of the Control group did not change across time. The Model procedure had only minimal effects on the rate of question-asking, while both the Model plus Token and the Token groups showed significant performance increments. The only significant difference between the Model plus Token and the Token groups was a faster rate of increase early in the first Training condition for the Model plus Token group. This difference, and the low level of performance change for the Model group, was interpreted as suggesting a facilitory effect of modelling procedures on reinforcement contingencies. The discrepancy between previous findings showing relatively minimal changes following reinforcement of low base-rate responses and the present results were discussed in terms of various procedural differences. Educational implications of the present results were also discussed.     

ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF CLINICAL FEARS IN MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN

Three moderately mentally retarded females ranging from 8 to 10 years of age were treated for long-standing fears. These children had refused to talk with or be in the same general vicinity of adults other than their parents, a few close family members, and to a lesser degree, their teacher. To establish an accurate criterion for successful performance on dependent measures, participants were matched on age, sex, and level of mental retardation with children having “normal” amounts of fear. Dependent measures included approaching and talking to strange adults as well as child ratings of overall fear. Participant modeling was given by the mother who provided a sufficient amount of physical and verbal prompts to ensure that an acceptable greeting of adults specified by the mother were made. These prompts were gradually faded out as treatment progressed. Treatment, which was given in a multiple baseline format across subjects, proved effective and gains in the reduction of fears were maintained at the six month follow-up.