LEISURE-DANCE INSTRUCTION FOR SEVERELY AND PROFOUNDLY RETARDED PERSONS: TEACHING AN INTERMEDIATE COMMUNITY-LIVING SKILL

We evaluated an approach for teaching an intermediate community living skill via a leisure-dance activity to institutionalized severely and profoundly retarded persons. The targeted skill was considered as intermediate in contrast to a community living skill per se because it was based on successful performances of higher functioning, noninstitutionalized retarded persons as opposed to nonhandicapped individuals. Definitions for appropriate dancing were established and then validated through observations of the performance of retarded persons living in the local community. The dance skills were then taught to four participants through serial training in leg movements, arm movements, and coordinated leg and arm movements, plus follow-up trainer supervision. Generalization was also programmed by way of multiple trainers and training settings. Results during structured assessments showed that all four residents acquired the dance skills and that both serial training and follow-up supervision were necessary for skill acquisition. Generalized increases in appropriate dancing at dances attended by the participants and retarded persons from the community were also demonstrated. However, in most cases some active supervision by caregivers was needed to enhance the generalized improvements. Results are discussed in terms of the applicability of this approach for validating goals when training other community-related skills to low-functioning populations.     

Teaching chained skills in a non-school setting using a divided half instructional format

This investigation evaluated the use of dyadic instructional arrangements in teaching chained skills to four students with moderate mental retardation. Each instructional dyad consisted of two students. Each of the three cooking skills was divided into two equal parts, and each student in a dyad received direct instruction on one part of the task analysis during each instructional session. During the following session, the two parts were reversed and a student received instruction on the second part. A constant time delay procedure was used to teach the targeted skills in an off-campus setting. A multiple probe design across skills and replicated across students evaluated the effectiveness of the instructional procedure and teaching arrangement. Results indicate that each of the four students learned the three cooking skills. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Validation of a component model of social skill with outpatient adults

Little social skills research has been generated from applied outpatient settings. The present study examined the relationship of behavioral social skill components to independent judges' social skill judgments. A secondary question was whether nonverbal components would demonstrate a curvilinear relationship to social skill ratings. Forty-two outpatient adults at a community mental health center were videotaped role-playing eight scenes (four commendatory and four refusal). Videotapes were viewed in random order by community members who rated the subject's social skill in the situation. Trained raters scored the videotapes on standard behavioral components. While both nonverbal and verbal components accounted for significant portions of unique variance, the percentage of eye contact was an overwhelmingly large contributor to skill judgments. No curvilinear trend was evidenced for the nonverbal components. The study extended prior findings with psychiatric inpatients into applied outpatient settings and indicated that a component social skills model is equally applicable with outpatient adults. The findings replicated with a second sample of outpatient adults.     

Cognitive processes among skilled miniature golf players: Effects of instructions on motor performance, concentration time, and perceived difficulty

Highly skilled miniature golf players were examined on a simplified miniature golf task under different instructional conditions. Results indicated that requirements to attend to a variety of technical aspects of the game during preparation impaired motor performance, whereas providing players with those aspects of the game they reported thinking of did not affect motor performance. Data on concentration time and perceived difficulty indicated that increasing cognitive demands were associated with a decline in motor precision. The overall pattern of results was interpreted such that attention directed at technical aspects of the game interfered with the players' normal cognitive activity. Susceptibility to interference is a characteristic feature of controlled cognitive operations. Thus, the present results are consistent with the view that conscious cognitive activity may support motor behavior also at late stages of skill development.     

Group instruction with profoundly retarded persons: acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of a remunerative work skill.

We evaluated a group instruction program for teaching a vocational skill to profoundly retarded adults. The program involved designated trainer roles and both individual student-directed and total group-directed procedures. Results indicated that, following the program, participants acquired the skill of stamping addresses on envelopes, the skill generalized across an untrained type of envelope, and the skill maintained over time. The group activity was incorporated into the regular classroom without increased disruption and the participants earned a wage for their productivity. Implications for the development of a group instruction technology for severely handicapped persons are discussed.     

Measuring social skill in grade school boys

This study examined positive and negative assertive skill in 60 elementary school boys, grades 3–8. Subjects' role-played responses to standard analogue situations requiring expression of positive and negative assertion were videotaped and rated retrospectively. High- and low-assertive subjects were identified through ratings of overall assertiveness. Results of this study indicate that (1) high- and low-assertive subjects differ on a number of response components which are related to age level and type of assertive situation (positive vs. negative), (2) assertive skill is associated with role-taking (or decentering) ability, (3) teachers tend to perceive their assertive boys as more sociable and interpersonally sensitive than unassertive boys, (4) there is essentially no correlation between teachers' ratings of aggressiveness and separate behavioral ratings of assertive skill, and (5) behavioral ratings of assertiveness show little relationship to self-report or teachers' ratings of assertiveness.This article is based on a dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Loyola University of Chicago in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The study was conducted under the direction of the second, third, and fourth authors.     

TEACHING SEVERELY MULTIHANDICAPPED STUDENTS TO PUT ON THEIR OWN HEARING AIDS

Two experiments were conducted with six severely multihandicapped students with hearing impairments to: (a) train the six students to put on their own hearing aids independently, and (b) provide an empirical evaluation of a comprehensive instructional program for putting on a hearing aid by assessing acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of that skill across environments. All six students acquired the skill rapidly, with two students requiring remedial training on one step of the program. Because for two of the original three students the newly learned skill failed initially to generalize to other environments, a second experiment was initiated to assess generalization across environments as well as to replicate the efficiency of the acquisition program. When a variation of the multiple-probe baseline technique was used, the behavior of three additional students generalized to other settings without direct training in those settings.     

THE USE OF SELF-MODELING TO IMPROVE THE SWIMMING PERFORMANCE OF SPINA BIFIDA CHILDREN

The use of edited videotape replay (which showed only “positive” behaviors) to improve the water skills of three spina bifida children, aged 5 to 10 years was examined. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used, and behavioral changes were observed to occur in close association with intervention. One child was given successive reapplications of videotaped self-modeling with continuing improvements. It appears that a useful practical technique has been developed.     

Number-word sequence skill and arithmetic performance

In two studies, the role of the number‐word sequence skill for arithmetic performance was investigated. In the first, children between 4 and 8 years of age were asked to count forward and backward on the number‐word sequence and to solve arithmetic problems followed by post‐solution interviews about solution procedures. The results demonstrated that the number‐word sequence skill predicted both number of problems solved and strategy to solve the problems. In Study 2 it was found that solving doubles (e.g., 2 + 2 = ?) problems served as a link between the number‐word sequence skill and the number of arithmetic problems solved. The findings suggest that counting on the number‐word sequence may be an early solution procedure and that, with increasing counting skill, the child may detect regularities in the number‐word sequence that can be used to form new and more accurate strategies for solving arithmetic problems.     

That looks easy! Evidence against the benefits of an easier criterion of success for enhancing motor learning

OPTIMAL theory predicts providing learners with a relatively easier criterion of success during practice enhances motor learning through increased self-efficacy, perceptions of competence, and intrinsic motivation. However, mixed results in the literature suggest this enhancement effect may be moderated by the number of successes achieved by learners practicing with the difficult criterion. To investigate this possibility, we manipulated quantity of practice to affect the absolute number of successes achieved by learners practicing with different success criteria. Eighty participants were divided into four groups and performed 50 or 100 trials of a mini-shuffleboard task. Groups practiced with either a large or a small zone of success surrounding the target. Learning was assessed 24 h after acquisition with retention and transfer tests. In terms of endpoint accuracy and precision, there were no learning or practice performance benefits of practicing with an easier criterion of success, regardless of the number of trials. This absence of a criterion of success effect was despite the efficacy of our manipulation in increasing the number of trials stopping within the zone of success, self-efficacy, perceptions of competence, and, for participants with 100 trials, intrinsic motivation. An equivalence test indicated that the effect of criterion of success was small, if existent. Moreover, at the individual level, intrinsic motivation did not predict posttest or acquisition performance. There were no benefits of easing the criterion of success on pressure, effort, accrual of explicit knowledge, or conscious processing. These data challenge key tenets of OPTIMAL theory and question the efficacy of easing criterion of success for motor learning.