The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the generalization of mands during functional communication training (FCT) and sign language training across functional contexts (i.e., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement). A secondary purpose was to evaluate a training procedure based on stimulus control to teach manual signs. During…

Results of the study involving five moderately/severely retarded adolescents indicated that picture prompts can be successully used to promote both acquisition and generalization of performance, and the subsequent training time on a novel task was reduced when the use of picture prompts had been previously trained. (Author/CL)

Seven mentally retarded adolescents received either verbal or nonverbal training on a shape-sorting task within a multiple baseline design. Both training sequences resulted in the successful acquisition of the target performance, but only the verbal training sequence facilitated generalization of performance to a novel shape and to a new…