Teaching prevocational skills to EMR adolescents.

A program for strengthening promptness and initiative behaviors was conducted with three educable, mentally retarded adolescents. The program consisted of three elements: (a) instructions on the responses desired and their importance, (b) a self-evaluation procedure, and (c) consequation of successful performance with social praise from the classroom teacher. The results supported the efficacy of the intervention package as a method for teaching two behaviors that are commonly emphasized in prevocational and vocational special education curricula.

Modifying echolalic speech in preschool children: training and generalization.

An operant-conditioning technique was used to teach three handicapped children exhibiting echolalia to respond appropriately to a series of questions. The technique included punishment of echolalic responses and reinforcement of appropriate responses that were cued by a tape recording of the appropriate response. Frequencies of correct responses to the questions increased for each child following a within-subject multiple baseline design. Echolalic responding eliminated in response to trained questions. Generalization of training to several functional responses was found in addition to increased spontaneous use of a functional phrase. Generalization of trained responses across settings and stimuli was also suggested. A 12-month follow-up of two of the subjects revealed no increase in echolalic responding and moderate maintenance of the trained responses. The subjects also showed notable response generalization to untrained questions at the time of the follow-up probe.

Establishing a normal peer as a behavioral model for developmentally delayed toddlers.

The present investigation demonstrated a systematic teaching procedure for establishing a normal toddler as a peer-model for three children showing delayed development, each one under 27 mo. of age. For each delayed subject, training consisted of adult-directed prompting and social reinforcement contingent upon the delayed children's imitations of material use and motor responses emitted by a normal peer. Within-subjects multiple-baseline designs across responses were used to demonstrate intrasubject control over imitative responding. Indices of stimulus and response generalization were assessed through having the peer-model present the trained responses along with untrained responses in a situation free of adult prompting and social reinforcement for imitative responding. Results indicated that the training in peer-imitation was successful for establishing the peer-model's behavior in a stimulus control relationship with the imitative responding of the delayed children. Moreover, the findings generally demonstrated transfer of training across stimulus situations and responses. Implications for educational programming with developmentally delayed children are discussed.

Changes in peer verbalizations accompanying individual and group contingencies to modify on-task behavior.

Group and individual contingency arrangements were alternately applied to modify the on-task performance of 5 behavior-disordered children. Concurrent records were maintained regarding the children's task-relevant (facilitating) and non-task-relevant (inhibiting) verbalizations to peers. Both contingency arrangements were effective for controlling the children's on-task behavior while only the group contingency was associated with changes in their verbalizations. Specifically, the group contingency, as compared to the baseline and the individual contingency, was accompanied by a significant increase in facilitating verbalizations by peers. Moreover, the group contingency, in relation to the baseline but not the individual contingency, resulted in significantly fewer inhibiting verbalizations. The individual contingency did not affect either facilitating or inhibiting verbalizations of peers.

Developing positive social-emotional behaviors: a study of training and generalization effects.

Four handicapped children were taught four positive social-emotional behaviors: smiling, sharing, positive physical contacting, and verbal complimenting, using instructions, modelling, and praise. Rates of these behaviors were shown to increase in four trained subjects using a within-subject multiple-baseline experimental design. The generality of the behavior change was investigated by integrating three untrained subjects with the trained subjects in a setting free of adult-imposed contingencies and through a series of follow-up observations. Three trained subjects evidenced collateral increases in the generalization setting on at least one other behavior when training in smiling was conducted. One trained subject showed generalization session increases for each behavior when training was conducted to increase that behavior. All three untrained subjects demonstrated increased rates of smiling and sharing when interventions were conducted to increase those behaviors with the trained subjects. There was no appreciable generalization of verbal complimenting by either the trained or the untrained subjects. Both trained and untrained subjects generally maintained their increased rates of smiling, sharing, and positive physical contacting across four weeks of follow-up observations.