Teaching an infant manual signs is beneficial as it promotes early communication, improves socialization, and can functionally replace behaviors such as crying and whining. Improving early communication also may reduce the probability of an infant engaging in dangerous behavior, like unsafe climbing. The purpose of this study was to extend…

Behavior analysts have spent relatively little time in designing interventions to enhance motor development in typically developing infants and children. This study examines the effect of a motor training package consisting of opportunity to respond and practice (standing the infant and letting her hold the fingers of the experimenter),…

Two experiments with young children with mental retardation found that a milieu teaching approach was effective in facilitating subjects' use of such prelinguistic communication skills as requesting, commenting, and vocal imitation, in both the training and generalized settings. Evidence of reciprocal effects on teacher-student interaction was…