Based upon an MA thesis submitted to Boston College, and supported in part by grant HD 01798, U.S. Public Health Service.

Research supported in part by OE Project 5-0415.

A review of 42 controlled treatment studies suggests that several intervention strategies have produced positive effects. These strategies include operant procedures, structuring of activity and play material, symbolic modeling, coaching, and peer socialization. However, studies have generally failed to determine the durability of treatment…

Self-reinforcement by 74 children of age five years for asking questions in a small group with one trainer, then in a large group with another person, showed that self-reinforcing children had learned to ask questions but the behavior did not transfer to the new situation. (Author)

Technology has been used to measure visual acuity with the severely or profoundly mentally retarded child. The following categories of technology have been used for assessment: the recording of visual fixation within the habituation paradigm; equipment to measure eye movements and pursuits; operant techniques; and electrodiagnostic techniques…

Handwriting performance was measured over baseline, direct contingent reward, and implicit reward conditions for elementary-grade children from normal classes. Extinctive reactions present under implicit reward conditions were significantly stronger for groups of eight than for paired subjects. Age-level factors were not significantly related to…

The mothers and fathers of 11 preschool autistic children were taught operant procedures used in teaching speech to nonverbal children. At posttreatment, the children showed significant gains in pre-speech and speech skills as measured by a 21-step hierarchy of speech behaviors. (Author)

To study improvement of visual monitoring of retardates, specialized training methods backed up by incentives were used. The extent to which these training techniques might be expected to produce results which would generalize was explored. Subjects were eight female mental retardates (ages 15-22) with IQs from 38 to 69. (Author/SJL)

A study investigating the discrimination abilities of two crib-bound, cerebral palsied, profoundly retarded females demonstrates the importance of individual differences among such children and suggests that discriminative responding may be demonstrated by at least some profoundly retarded children, particularly if distributed practice is employed…

A 21-year-old woman who was totally blind, severely hearing impaired, functionally retarded, behaviorally resistive, self-stimulative, self-abusive, and who lacked basic communication skills, was taught to sit quietly and wait on command. (Author/PHR)

Predelinquent and delinquent youths were given behavior modification, social skills, and self-management training. The youths demonstrated a decrease in the number of problem behaviors exhibited at home and in school. The benefits of a self-management approach to juvenile offenders are discussed. (Author)

Four speech deficient mentally retarded children (3-5 years old) with Down's Syndrome were taught imitative verbal responses by two methods based on operant conditioning principles. (Author/CL)

An introductory framework for analyzing and modifying classroom behavior...is followed by presentation of illustrative case materials, discussion of philosophical and ethical issues, analysis of pitfalls to be avoided, and consideration of limitations inherent in behavioral approaches. (Author)

Available from: Psychonomic Society, 1108 W. 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705. Studied with 10 learning disabled children (5-9 years old) was the development of self-management skills without direct teacher supervision through the use of operant reinforcement procedures. (IM)