Using classroom-based instruction and on-the-job monitoring and feedback, seven teachers were trained to systematically observe the data collection and teaching performances of their assistants as well as to provide contingent feedback. The supervisory training for teachers was accompanied by improvement in data collection among seven of eight…

Twenty individuals with mild retardation and 20 individuals with moderate retardation participated in simulated instruction and/or community training of four functional living tasks. Participants with mild retardation performed better on simulated tasks and in the community settings, however, in many situations, community training was sufficiently…

Six severely disabled young adults were taught to self-monitor work rate on job tasks, evaluate daily performance against a criterion, and recruit contingent feedback from supervisors. Performance results indicated a functional relationship between self-recruited feedback and maintenance of improved work rate. (Author/JW)

Three severely mentally retarded, multiply handicapped adolescents were treated in a classroom setting for social skill deficits. Treatment focused on increasing eye contact and strengthening on-task and in-seat behaviors. Results suggested that a combination of visual stimuli, operant, and social learning methods can be used to successfully…

The relationship between preferred objects associated with stereotypy, stereotypic behavior, and accuracy of responding during a counting task by a child with autism was analyzed. Teaching with high-preference objects occasioned more stereotypic behavior and less accurate counting than teaching with medium- and low-preference objects. (Author/DB)

This study examined effects of cue control and behavioral relaxation training (BRT) with five subjects having severe mental retardation. BRT produced reductions in rated anxiety and improvements in concentration for all subjects. Cue control words were effective only after they had been linked with BRT. (DB)

Four experiments with six students with multiple profound disabilities examined the function of behavioral stereotypies and sensory modalities maintaining them. Findings are discussed in terms of the sensory and social reinforcers that maintain stereotypy, assessment procedures used to identify reinforcers, and the interpretation of assessment…

Four autistic and severely handicapped children (ages 9-13) were taught to recruit or set the occasion for praise from an adult. After the structured instruction, the children used these behaviors in all generalization settings and were frequently successful in recruiting praise. (Author/DB)

Four trainers taught communicative gestures to four individuals with severe mental retardation during one-to-one sessions. Preceding each training session, verbal feedback was given with regard to the trainer's performance during the previous session. Delayed feedback was found to result in increased accuracy of training. (Author/JDD)

This study examined whether sentence-combining exercises (with reinforcement) would increase the number of descriptive adjectives used in daily writing samples by three adolescents with autism. The sentence-combining exercises increased the number of adjectives used in the students' writing samples, and this increase was maintained in the absence…

A study attempted to assess preferences between a task arrangement involving mobility and a task arrangement involving sedentariness with three women with severe disabilities and visual impairments or blindness. Results found that participants' preferences about task arrangements could be successfully assessed. (Author/CR)

A study compared a brief and an extended functional analyses of three adults with serious developmental disabilities and aggressive or self-injurious behavior. Both analyses revealed the same controlling variables, but the brief functional analyses took less than 20% the time in analog conditions as the extended analyses. (Author/CR)

Two experiments with 15 individuals having profound mental retardation found difficulties in identifying reinforcers that were actually effective in treatment of chronic training needs. Research needs in evaluating training alternatives for people with profound multiple disabilities who move very little or who respond with very long latencies are…

A study investigated transfer and maintenance of question-answering skills in five children (ages 3-7) with autism. After training using analogous question-answer exemplars, children were able to answer novel questions with complete sentences within each class (what, where, who, and why), and showed transfer of skills across persons, settings, and…

Two studies compared the effectiveness of two procedures (multiple examples across trials and within trials) in teaching 10 students (ages 10-20) with moderate disabilities functional word discriminations. The first procedure was superior in acquisition; the latter procedure, however, was better under generalization for most participants.…