Contrasts students' presymbolic and symbolic procedures in generalizing activities. Uses the semiotic-cultural theoretical approach and focuses on the role of body, discourse, and signs when students refer to mathematical objects. Identifies types of generalizations and discusses a specific kind of rupture in the ostensive gestures and…

Evaluated effects of daily practice writing spelling words in sentences on generalization of spelling words to written work. Findings from mildly mentally handicapped students (n=4) aged 8 to 13 showed that generalization of the target spelling words to written work was improved by sentence writing. Follow-up condition indicated maintenance of…

Five young adults and three junior high students, with moderate mental retardation, were trained first to label characters verbally and then to enter the characters into computers, calculators, or checkbooks. Almost all subjects were able to generalize the use of verbal labels and key-entry skills across tasks and settings. (Author/JDD)

Tactile cues were provided to a 19-year-old deaf, blind, and mentally retarded individual to guide her performance on packaging tasks. The tactile prompts effectively guided her on the training task and were also generalized to novel tasks and cues. Continued use of the cues was necessary to maintain performance. (Author/JDD)

A study of the acquisition of mands (requests) and tacts (labels) relating to food and eating utensils in three individuals with severe mental retardation revealed that responses acquired as tacts did not readily occur as mands, but spontaneous manding was developed through a stimulus control transfer procedure. (MSE)

Twenty single-subject investigations on early language interventions were reviewed. Treatments, including direct reinforcement of verbalization, mand-model, and time delay, were generally successful. Specific generalization training procedures were also supported. (Author/DB)

Four toddlers with mental retardation were studied in the context of a multiple baseline across subjects design. Results supported the use of a modified version of milieu teaching to increase intentional requesting by these children. Increased intentional requesting was generalized to interactions with mothers. (Author/DB)

Study explored how analog type and format and learner's prior knowledge would affect transfer outside of an experimental setting, examining the relationship between the analog's contextual elements and high school freshmen's performance on a science problem. Some students spontaneously applied structural elements on the analog to the solution. (SM)

Two experiments with 89 fifth-grade and 166 intermediate-grade students with learning problems found that specific strategy training improved fifth graders' level of knowledge and performance on a categorical memory test, and metamemory and metacognitive reading training improved metacognitive knowledge and academic achievement of the learning…

Stimulus control technology was used to instruct seven students in grades five and six who demonstrated difficulty with fraction ratio and decimal relations. Students were trained to match pictorial representations of fractions to printed counterpart fraction ratios and to match printed decimals to pictorial representations of counterpart…

This article presents a rationale and recommendations for developing generalized outcomes in instructional objectives for learners with mental retardation. Examples of objectives that include generalized performance are presented, and a checklist is provided to facilitate the preparation of objectives that target the use of functional skills in…

This review focuses on correspondence training procedures, in which a subject makes statements about intended positive behavior and the statements are reinforced. The paper examines early research, generalization, maintenance, application to mentally retarded individuals, and the concept of self-control. (Author/JDD)

A study involving four male beginning readers with learning disabilities compared the effects on gains in fluency of two types of mastery criteria. One required students to reread a passage until they demonstrated 3 successive improvements; the other required rereading until 90 correct words per minute were reached. Both were successful;…

This paper presents a conceptual framework, based on training in self-regulation, for the normalization of sexual behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities. Four features of such an approach include acquiring appropriate sexual behaviors, generalizing skills, discriminating appropriate contexts, and evaluating one's actions. (DB)

This paper proposes for consideration by intervention researchers two instructional parameters that potentially can promote transfer of learned strategies in students with learning disabilities. The two parameters are mediating student mindfulness during strategy learning and at transfer and engaging in transfer-promoting instruction. (JDD)