Abrupt discontinuation of functional communication training can cause resurgence of challenging behavior. Teaching multiple alternative responses in sequence ("serial training") may reduce resurgence, relative to teaching a single alternative. However, previous evaluations of serial training included a different number of response…

Over the past few years an increasing number of schools and community organizations have developed transformative learning spaces referred to as "MakerSpaces" for research and training purposes. MakerSpaces are organizations in which members sharing similar interests in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) gather to work on…

A study was conducted to demonstrate that originality can be facilitated in elementary school children. Research has shown that a training procedure designed to elicit uncommon responses will facilitate original responses on subsequent tasks. Ss were 96 fifth- and sixth-graders. Half were randomly assigned to a group given originality training…

Research supported in part by OE Project 5-0415.

Planning, funding and operating anti-poverty programs require skilled community organizers. Training organizers deals with problems of how to motivate others and what tactics should be used when difficulty is encountered. Two approaches to these problems determined by images of 20th Century Man have been employed: (1) rational economic man who…

The study, involving two severely retarded adolescents, investigated whether matching to sample is capable of extending equivalence classes with spelling responses. In preliminary training, Ss were taught the matching to sample procedure by having them match color patch samples to identical color patch comparisons. The experimenters then trained…

The study investigated the effect of object preference on the learning of signs by 12 severely and profoundly retarded children (4-7 years old). Signs were chosen that were two-handed, symmetrical, and abstract. Training of each sign consisted of 10 individual training sessions using operant techniques. Results revealed no differences in the…

A multiple baseline design for modifying the gross motor coordination of a 31-month-old boy suspected of suffering from congenital brain damage was conducted at the University of Kansas Infant Study Laboratory. The primary purpose of the study was to establish, by experimental procedures, the desired, but absent, behavior of walking, getting up,…

The author relates contemporary work on imitation and training to the historic contributions of Itard and Sequin. (RD)

This research was supported by Research Grant No. 30-200-50, Indiana University Foundation, Indiana University.

To facilitate the use of operant audiometry with low functioning children (psychotic, severely retarded, or multiply handicapped), a procedures manual was developed containing definitions of terms, instructions for determining reinforcers, physical facilities and equipment needs, diagrams, component lists, and technical descriptions. Development…

A series of three experiments was conducted with three severely retarded children to investigate the vocalization-producing potential of two antecedent conditions: adult talk (commonly cited antecedent) and adult silence. (Author/CL)

A sequential training procedure combining operant and cumulative learning hierarchy principles was found effective in reducing the decrement in concept identification performance typically observed in older adults. (JMB)

The techniques of behavior modification are of potentially great value in the schools. (Author)