Five preschool children at risk for mental retardation were taught to choose an odd stimulus which varied in one important dimension (e.g., form, color, or size) from other stimuli in a set. Oddity responding was shown to transfer across stimulus types, and learning was maintained for a minimum of six weeks. (Author/JW)

The article discusses generalization in use of learning strategies with the mildly disabled and presents a generalization model. Major research findings indicate the importance of explicit instruction in generalization, teacher expectation of strategy generalization, and feedback. Seven areas of research needs (such as motivation and metacognition…

Two studies required 11 learning disabled (LD) elementary students to spell unknown words using standard written dictation and imitation-modeling. When the LD students were permitted sufficient, though individually variable, exposure to minimal correction procedures, they spontaneously generalized what had been learned from one spelling list to…

Using the Topic of electromagnets as an example, describes how science teachers can benefit from the work of Hilda Taba and her co-workers in the area of instructional design and in classroom techniques for developing concepts. (JR)

The influence of task explanation on strategy transfer was studied. When educable mentally retarded adolescents were trained to rehearse and given a minimal explanation of a directed forgetting task, the majority were found to maintain the strategy on trials identical to rehearsal, but they failed to generalize the strategy in other trials.…

A study found that 4 boys (age 11) with mild disabilities were able to acquire the behaviors for instructive feedback stimuli when the stimuli were presented after trials on any of a set of target behaviors and could acquire instructive feedback behaviors during acquisition of or mastery of target behaviors. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

The role of subject verbalization in the generalization of verbal-nonverbal correspondence was investigated in 12 kindergarten children who underwent either correspondence training (subject verbalization) or performing a behavior verbalized by the experimenter. Pupils who received correspondence training demonstrated greater generalization.…

The study found that a pragmatic teaching strategy based on milieu teaching and time-delay procedures was effective in teaching four nonspeaking, developmentally delayed children (ages five and six) using manual communication boards to initiate requests for information (i.e., who, what, and where) (DB)

This study, involving two three-year-olds with mild mental retardation, found that milieu language intervention can directly enhance the acquisition and generative use of lexical and semantic forms used for varied pragmatic functions and that adult systematic commenting and child spontaneous imitation may interact to facilitate the teaching…

The article describes the Consolidated Method for Independent Learners (CMIL) which is based on schema theory and is designed to develop self efficacy, teach learning strategies, and foster generalization skills in learning-disabled and other handicapped children. (DB)

Describes a method of teaching the order of mathematical operations based upon the psychological theory of conceptual generalization. (MDH)

Key words from product warning labels were taught to four adolescents with moderate mental disabilities using flash cards and a progressive time-delay procedure. Although students mastered the words in a relatively short time with minimal errors, generalization probe data with actual products across settings revealed the need for instruction to…

These thoughts, by an author of a paper (EC 611 428) on teaching adolescents with moderate mental retardation to read key warning label words, focus on the importance of teaching for generalization or teaching word recognition using actual labels and encouraging an appropriate behavioral response. (DB)

This study with 56 learning-disabled adolescents found that intensive generalization training specific to the development of complex mnemonic strategies was demonstrably more effective in recall at 1-day and 2-week intervals than a rehearsal condition. No added advantage was gained by adding attribution training to the mnemonic generalization…