Mothers of seven preschool children with developmental delays were trained to encourage child participation in social interaction by being highly responsive and child-centered. Following intervention, mother-child dyads experienced more episodes of joint engagement and increased total duration of joint engagement than control dyads. Changes in…

Young adolescents have diverse learning needs. If teachers accommodated the complete learning cycle by designing instructional units that began with romance activities, led to precision opportunities, and culminated in generalization projects, students could develop their diverse talents while avoiding boredom with uninspiring precision…

Outlines conceptualization and preliminary exploration of phenomenal patterning, a counseling approach used to examine how language expression, theme identification, and guided imagery can reveal basic structure of person's mindset. Examined patterning focusing on theme of problem formation/resolution and three universal modeling processes of…

Four mentally retarded adults received single case instruction, followed by general case instruction, on washing machine and dryer use, using either actual appliances or simulation. Generalization errors were affected by single/general case instruction, not by use of simulated versus natural conditions. General case simulation was more efficient…

Storytelling scenarios are suggested for teaching basic first-aid skills to children (ages 4-9) who have mild to severe disabilities. The method involves four steps: assembling materials; identifying skills and conducting task analyses; teaching the skills; and assessing discrimination among different types of injuries, generalization to new…

This commentary on EC 606 262 (a study on the effectiveness of peer-mediated intervention on the social behavior of eight socially withdrawn preschoolers) emphasizes the importance of assessing multiple measures of integration, the need to implement research in real world settings, and the need for research on enhancing generalization and…

A review of nine studies on the efficacy of metacognitive interpersonal problem-solving training with students who have learning and behavior problems found demonstrated cognitive gains but less success in demonstrating that such gains were subsequently applied to actual behavior or generalized to other social behavior. (DB)

Evaluation of an instrumental enrichment program with 80 gifted children (ages 10-12) from culturally disadvantaged backgrounds and a follow-up study 4 years later showed: (1) generalization effects on verbal and nonverbal thinking tasks, and (2) durability of effects on thinking tasks and broad generalization in school achievement. (Author/DB)

The parents of a young man with severe mental retardation and challenging behaviors comment on the use of punishment, arguing that the effectiveness of punishment cannot be consistently evaluated without placing their son in a restrictive setting and incurring subsequent uncertainty about generalizing the procedures back into the community…

A five-second constant time delay procedure was used to teach three chained vocational tasks (filling a soda machine, using a duplicating machine, and using a photocopier) to four high school students with mild or moderate disabilities. All students acquired the skills with a low percentage of errors. Maintenance and generalization data were…

A multisensory program using a counting technique was effective in teaching math skills to three elementary students with mild disabilities. Results showed significant gains in acquisition of target skills as well as maintenance and generalization to novel math problems. (Author/DB)

This article presents a framework for modifying traditional auditory therapy techniques to address the needs of hearing-impaired children with cochlear implants. Emphasis is on activities that encourage carry-over of skills from structured to unstructured settings resembling listening in a natural environment. (DB)

An observational learning paradigm was used to instruct five elementary students with mild or moderate mental retardation to monitor their comprehension of incomplete instructions. Although all subjects eventually demonstrated observational learning, performance varied depending on the type of instruction inadequacy. During posttesting all…

Discusses major advances and issues in social-skills research with adolescents, including efforts to facilitate treatment adherence, social validity, and generalization of interventions. Directions for further improvement of social-skills intervention technology are also discussed. (Author/CR)

Four secondary students with moderate/severe mental retardation were taught table cleaning skills using a system of least prompts (SLP) procedure and multiple exemplars. In addition, students were encouraged to acquire nontargeted behaviors through observational learning during instructional downtime. Results indicate the SLP strategy was…