The study sought to identify effective procedures for facilitating initial imitative vocal behavior in mentally retarded children, thus accelerating the initial stages of language acquisition. Three groups of Down syndrome children ages 6 months to 4 years (N=15) served as subjects in an examination of the relative effectiveness of three…

A study was conducted: (1) to determine the proportion of average 6th-grade students who, when given prompts, could produce an incipient form of dialectical reasoning; and (2) to test a unit of instruction developed to teach dialectical reasoning as an appropriate learning strategy for exploring public controversies. It was hypothesized that if…

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of several techniques for teaching reading to students with mental disabilities. Basic considerations include the following facts: (1) the effectiveness of the teacher is more important than the teaching method used, and (2) the teacher's view of reading should match the reading approach…

To examine the influence of two variables--prompting versus confirmation, and verbalization--on learning, 60 high school subjects used programed instruction under six randomly assigned treatment conditions to learn to write computer programs. The rules group periodically wrote out the programing rules; the naming group subjects named the rules;…

Describes a project that heightens teacher awareness of research on four types of beneficial classroom practices: (1) use of wait time when asking students questions, (2) attention to academic learning time, (3) use of prompting or cuing, and (4) use of reinforcement when questioning students. (SKC)

A brief inservice program followed by supervisory prompts and feedback provided to 39 education staff in 21 classrooms serving 152 severely handicapped students was consistently accompanied by increased student involvement in functional educational tasks. Improved services continued throughout a two-year follow-up period. (Author/JW)

Parents should realize the importance of being their child's first teacher and should project an attitude of respect in helping children acquire skills while maintaining self-esteem. The five basic tools necessary for teaching children include: nonjudgmental feedback, task analysis, starting with the last step first, prompting, and praise. (JDD)

Presents a four-task typology (concept, relation, process, argumentation) of essay examination prompts, based on study of 284 prompts used in 15 academic departments at Western Illinois University, and shows how it can be used to help foreign students sharpen their English-language essay examination-taking skills. (CB)

Discusses effective use of teacher language in guiding children to interact verbally. Presents technique of repeating the last three words of a child utterance, followed by the word "and," which encourages children to continue talking. Suggests that coupled with positive body language and genuine interest, this technique supports verbal…

A constant time delay (CTD) procedure was used to teach four adolescents with severe/profound intellectual disabilities to perform bowling, throwing, and putting. Results indicated that the adolescents could be effectively taught gross motor lifetime sport skills with the CTD procedure and that verbal description plus physical assistance could be…

Sequential analyses of dyadic interactions examined effects of input by 32 normally developing adolescents on responses of 7 male subjects with moderate-to-severe mental retardation. Prompts in the form of questions and comments were more likely to produce responses than directive prompts, and subjects were more likely to respond to male peers…

Four adults with brain injuries were trained to use written checklists that identified potential in-home hazards. The checklist alone was sufficient to increase appropriate responses to many hazards, and individualized task analyses, subsequently faded to natural conditions, remediated the others. Generalization occurred to some degree, and skills…

A retrospective review of 51 studies from 22 journals (1976 to 1990) concerning generalization of social skills training with preschool children was conducted. Strategies employed by the most successful studies were identified, such as addressing functional target behaviors; using prompts, positive reinforcement, and feedback strategies; and…

This study involving three autistic and four nondisabled preschool children found that a peer-initiation intervention produced increases in peer initiations and social interactions when the teacher verbally prompted, but not without verbal prompts. When a correspondence training/visual feedback package was implemented, peer initiations and social…

A 10-year-old student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominately inattentive type, was provided with computer software and a paging device with word prompting capabilities to prompt him to initiate and complete daily tasks. The intervention was effective in promoting the occurrence of target behaviors but did not affect overall…