Five children with severe educational retardation, aged 5-12, were involved in sign training in which the spoken words corresponding to signs were receptively known to participants. Whether signs were taught concurrently or in a serial fashion, signs taught by total communication were acquired faster than those taught by sign-alone training.…

Defines the concept of curriculum for industrial personnel development needs, explains the concept of professionalism, and presents a model for developing curricula for business and industry called the Professional Development Curriculum (PDC) model. Training needs are discussed and two applications of the model in General Motors are described.…

Explains what a job coach is and gives information on how a job coach prepares handicapped students to do many different kinds of work. Describes specific techniques for training job coaches to be effective in teaching adolescents and other students. (RS)

A review of 25 studies found that demonstrations of successful generalization of skills by persons with profound mental handicaps were characterized by: several trained exemplars, trained behaviors likely to be reinforced in natural settings by natural consequences, use of training stimuli common to the generalization setting, and training in…

The study with four adults with moderate and severe mental handicaps found that both backward and concurrent chaining training strategies were equally effective in teaching use of a fast food restaurant and a supermarket. (Author/DB)

Three autistic boys, aged 6-7, observed videotaped conversations consisting of 2 people discussing toys. Subsequent assessment of the boys using untrained topics of conversation, new stimuli, new persons, and other settings indicated that the children learned through video modeling, generalized their conversational skills, and maintained…

Describes the reasons that child care workers may lack enthusiasm. Discusses the design of effective training programs for employees who lack enthusiasm and provides suggestions for training paraprofessional staff. (RJC)

The characteristics of the skill clusters involved in community living response chains were studied, focusing on the length of the chain, the response classes contained in the chain, and the implicit variations within the chain. Instruction of response chains can be enhanced through consideration of the stimulus control strategies used.…

Discussion of instruction and training to introduce new ideas and to improve performance focuses on the presence of conflict and the theory of games. Topics discussed include learner participation; Theory X; Theory Y; and Theory Z; and game rules, including control, scoring, changing rules, and ending the game. (25 references) (LRW)

Describes a program of public speaking training, including development of a written proposal, conducting the workshop in four three-hour sessions, and evaluating the program. Notes that training was well received, and reduced trainees' self-reported communication apprehension. Presents ethical guidelines for scholar/consultants. (SR)

The paper presents a seven-step model that job coaches may use to teach self-management to employees with severe disabilities in supported employment settings. Steps include: identifying the problem, establishing a range of acceptable behavior, selecting self-management procedures, training self-management skills by withdrawing external…

The process of toilet training a boy with Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome is addressed. Emphasized are the joint effort of the teacher and parents, the frustration at the seeming lack of progress, the use of rewards and "positive practices," and the ultimate success of the boy's toilet training program. (JDD)

This article describes a six-year effort to link inservice training for experienced teachers with teacher preservice and induction for the novice teacher. It provides a rationale for using staff development training to strengthen preservice and induction programs, and discusses program goals, training components, program outcomes, and…

Outlines procedures for creating tests of knowledge that are consistent with training instruction by using test question formats. General patterns and specific question formats for recall, recognition, and application are given, and examples for creating sets of equivalent test questions are provided. (LRW)

Presents examples of flaws in training materials and technical documentation that result in user frustration, and offers suggestions for avoiding such errors. (CLB)