During small group instruction, two groups of children--each group comprised of one child with a disability and two without disabilities--were taught to read words using a progressive time delay procedure (PTD). Apart from the children with disabilities, two typically developing peers in each group were taught to comment on tokens given for…

Many studies have shown that small-group direct instruction is effective and efficient for teaching students with and without disabilities, although relatively few studies have been conducted with heterogeneous groups of preschool participants. In addition, previous studies have primarily assessed whether observational learning occurred for…

Research was reviewed on small-group instruction for learners with disabilities. The review was conducted for articles published between 1990 and 2010 on the application of small-group direct instruction to teach discrete skills using prompting procedures. A total of 47 articles with 197 participants and 687 replications of effects was located.…

The authors describe an intervention for 3 preschoolers with disabilities who had low peer-related social competence. The intervention taught academic skills tailored to the need of each target student in small groups (triads) with two typically developing peers, using a progressive time delay procedure. Prior to instruction and separate from the…

Research that served as background to the study reported in EC 604 974 is described, specifically research on use of the system of least prompts and on the rapidity with which various strategies produce skill acquisition. Unresolved issues concerning use of the system of least prompts with small groups are also discussed. (JDD)

Two dyads of students (ages 10-12) with moderate mental retardation were taught domestic and vocational chained tasks, with each student of each dyad being taught just a part of the task. Results indicated that constant time delay was effective, and all students learned a substantial amount of their partners' tasks through observation. (Author/JDD)

Three experiments evaluated the use of choral and individual responding in teaching word reading to four students (ages 10-13) with moderate mental retardation. The experiments indicated that the effects of choral and individual responding interact with the ratio of exposures to stimulus and with the ratio of opportunities to respond in the two…

This final report of the Group Errorless Teaching Strategies Research Project is organized by the project objectives and covers planned and actual activities and outcomes. Objective 1 involved a review of the literature related to teaching students with mild and moderate mental handicaps in group settings and resulted in three articles which…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of progressive time delay in teaching three male preschoolers with disabilities to imitate their peers during arts and crafts activities. The subjects were enrolled in a half-day, mainstreamed program designed for children with autism. Teacher-delivered peer-mediated trials were embedded into a daily arts and…

This study found that constant time delay was effective in teaching word reading to four students (ages seven to eight) with mild handicaps. Individual attentional response was more effective and efficient in learning to spell words than in choral attentional response. Observational and incidental learning occurred for all students. (Author/JDD)