Ten mentally retarded clients in a small work activity center were effectively trained to use social amenities during work-related communications. Training consisted of prework review of the rules of social amenities, frequent reminders during work by supervisors, client repetition of the reminders, and focused practice. (Author/DB)

Results of a peer confrontation procedure on the disruptive classroom behavior of three behavior-disordered and mildly retarded students (ages 9-11) are reported. Immediately following each episode of disruptive behavior, peers were prompted by the teacher to label the target behavior, indicate why it was unacceptable, and suggest an alternative…

Strategies typically used for teaching academic skills can also be used to teach disabled children to become more socially competent. They include modeling, strategic placement, correspondence training, rehearsal and practice, positive reinforcement/shaping, prompting and coaching, positive practice, and multimethod training packages. (VW)

Six retarded young adults were trained to select grocery items using picture cards as cues and to reject either (1) maximally different negative examples or (2) minimally different negative examples. Training with minimally different negative examples was functionally related to improved rejection of nontrained negative items in a nontrained…

A microcomputer-based simulation, developed to promote preservice elementary school teachers' acquisition of fundamental feedback, time-management, and behavior-management skills through powerful reinforcement, prompting, and feedback training aids, was proven successful in several applications involving entry-level education students. (Author/CB)

Sixty second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children were given opportunities to donate money to other children in order to establish age-related differences and demand characteristics contributing to variability in donating behavior. Discussion focuses on necessity of incorporating both qualitative and quantitative dimensions in general models of the…

The paper examines the effect of two types of prompts in eliciting a zero- or low-probability behavior in three Chicano gang members. A general prompt was ineffective, but subject-specific prompts elicited the target behavior (chain of responses terminating in the publication of writing and art work in a community newsletter). (NQA)

A study examined the effectiveness of a training procedure in teaching a special educator the constant time delay procedure and the effectiveness of the procedure in teaching spelling to a 12-year-old with learning disabilities. The teacher successfully implemented the procedure and the student learned to spell all 15 words. (Contains references.)…

Two time-delay conditions for teaching complex visual discriminations to 14 normal preschoolers, 12 with mild mental retardation, and 11 with moderate mental retardation were compared. Results indicated that for all populations and stimuli, time delay of multiple dynamic distinctive-feature prompts produced learning, while time delay of the single…

The study with eight learning-disabled elementary grade students found modeling a more effective feedback strategy than prompting on subjects' sight word reading performance. Differences were generally maintained at one-month and three-month follow-up. (Author/DB)

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)

The relative effectiveness of three procedures for increasing vocal response to prompt in 15 preschool children with Down Syndrome was compared. Light-dimming and visual screening, when combined with positive reinforcement, were both found to be significantly more effective than positive reinforcement alone. (Author/JDD)

This study of visual discrimination training with 22 adults with mental retardation involved either computer-delivered instruction with a stimulus-fading procedure or teacher-delivered verbal and nonverbal prompts. While the teacher prompts were effective with more subjects, participants learned more discrimination problems with the computer…

This study, involving four primary-aged students with moderate handicaps, found that the system of least prompts procedure was effective in teaching food words on a menu to students in a small-group instructional arrangement and that each student also acquired some secondary nontarget stimuli (such as food's approximate cost). (Author/JDD)

Six male elementary school students with learning disabilities were taught multiplication facts using a computer software program with a five-second constant time delay procedure. Results indicated that the computer-assisted instructional program was effective. Learning generalized with varying degrees of success. (Author/JDD)