Two children (ages four and five) with mild developmental delays and no appropriate toy play were trained individually on one topography for each toy. Previously reinforced topographies of toy play were then placed on extinction, resulting in the induction of untrained topographies. (Author/DB)

The effectiveness of a cognitive-process approach for teaching appropriate responses to criticism were assessed across three young adults with moderate mental retardation who were receiving vocational training. Results indicated that two participants learned this approach and successfully generalized their behavior across untrained stimuli.…

This study of four moderately to severely aphasic subjects found that success in manual sign training programs is related to severity of aphasia, that aphasic subjects' propositional use of manual signs rarely follows simple acquisition, and that generalization to untrained stimuli or environments does not occur without additional training.…

The self-monitoring and generalization behaviors of eight preschool children were observed as they progressed in management programs for their developmental phonological disorders. Self-monitoring behaviors varied in type, frequency, and point of onset in relation to generalization data. Self-monitoring behaviors did not always nor only occur in…

This article presents an overview of literature relating to a nonverbal learning disabilities subtype. The article addresses the relationship between nonverbal learning disabilities and socioemotional functioning, generalizability of research outcomes, individual differences, and treatment validity. (Author/JDD)

Explores the role of theory in strengthening causal interpretations in nonexperimental research. Evaluators must conduct theory-driven research, concentrating on "small theory," in that the focus is on the explanation of processes specific to the program being evaluated. Theory-guided treatment research must be programmatic and…

This multiple baseline study investigated the effectiveness of direct instruction of an advanced story-map procedure on the reading comprehension performance of six middle school students with learning disabilities (LD). Results indicated an increase in story grammar and basal comprehension performance generalization to a novel passage, and…

Examines ways to facilitate communication by nonverbal students with severe disabilities. Discusses selecting functional communication targets and teachable contexts, facilitating widespread use (generalization), ensuring maintenance of the new communication behavior, and implications for practice. (DB)

To test hypothesis that young children may be open to learning non-SVO structures with novel transitive verbs, 12 children in each of three age groups (2-year olds, 3-year olds, and 4-year olds) were taught novel verbs, one in each of three sentence positions: medial, final, and initial. Results suggest English-speaking children's acquisition of a…

Compared the effect of two phonological training procedures (segmenting and blending or first sound identification and rhyming) on low-skilled kindergarten students' acquisition of reading and spelling skills. Both groups of students improved significantly in target skills, reading, and spelling. There were no significant differences between…

This study examined whether maternal responsivity would predict the extent to which prelinguistic milieu teaching (PMT) facilitated generalized intentional communication better than a contrast small-group treatment with 58 children (ages 17 to 36 months) with developmental disabilities. If mothers were relatively responsive before treatment, PMT…

Two experiments examined impact of training in false belief understanding on 3-year-olds. Training involved encouragement of reflection on the event of various false belief scenarios, especially the protagonist's thoughts. Results suggested that task-specific strategies for close transfer posttest success were learned, rather than demonstrating a…

A review of 10 studies that utilize the behavior chain interruption strategy (BCIS) to teach communication skills to individuals with severe disabilities found that BCIS has been successfully applied to individuals across a wide range of ages and levels of disability, including learners with multiple disabilities. Generalization concerns are…

This article presents a critical review and reanalysis of response generalization effects in studies of treatment efficacy in apraxia of speech. The discussion focuses on the influence of the theoretical basis used to develop hypotheses and select behavior to test predictions, the complexity of the treatment task/s, and patient characteristics.…

Following a review of the language teaching practices of the past 50 years, reassess ten second language acquisition (SLA) research generalizations in light of the considerable amount of classroom-based SLA research that has been carried out since 1985, especially that which has addressed pedagogical concerns in primary and secondary school…