Token economy as a method of teaching basic concepts to the mentally retarded

ABSTRACT

A pilot study was conducted to test the effectiveness of Token Economy Techinique as a method of teaching basic concepts to severely retarded children.. Two subjects were selected from a population of 10 residential retarded children of [Chaman]. Their base line behaviour was determined by " basic concepts scales" devised on the pattern of "Bales Category system" six one-hour orientation sessions were given to each subject to make them familiar with the value of tokens and their association with back up reinforcers and contingent required responses. Then twenty four one hour teaching sessions [twice a week] were administered. The results showed a significant difference between pre and post therapeutic sessions on color naming, object naming, general orientation, names of body parts and facial feature, and names of class fellows and teachers [p<05]. However, no such difference was found on space and time orientation. [p>05]. Thus, token economy program was found effective in teaching all basic concepts except very abstract ones