The relative effectiveness of 3 instructional procedures (sight word, fading, tactile-kinesthetic) in teaching 32 students (age 9-20) with moderate to severe mental retardation to read a series of monosyllabic words was investigated. No one experimental condition was superior to the others, and no skill acquisition differences were found in…

This methodology for teaching basic meal preparation skills to students with mental retardation uses convenience foods and involves learning meal preparation reading vocabulary and common procedures. Instructional techniques include sight word development, use of rebus symbols, and graduated prompts (verbal, modeling, or physical guidance). A list…

This study of interactions between three severely withdrawn, autistic preschool children and six nonhandicapped peers found that peers can be effectively taught strategies to increase appropriate social behaviors of autistic classmates, and a group-oriented reinforcement contingency is an effective complement to teacher-prompted interventions and…

This study, involving four staff members in an institution for people with mental retardation, found that a computerized system of prompts to improve staff-client interactions produced more positive statements, improved distribution of interaction among clients, and resulted in delivery of more positive reinforcement than a traditional…

The purpose of this research was to implement and evaluate a classroom strategy to increase student engagement in sustained silent reading (SSR), a form of school-based recreational reading. Teacher modeling was selected as the primary intervention. A within-subjects ABAB withdrawal design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the…

The increasing availability and performance of computer-based testing has prompted more research on the automatic assessment of language and speaking proficiency. In this investigation, we evaluated the feasibility of using an off-the-shelf speech-recognition system for scoring speaking prompts from the LanguEdge field test of 2002. We first…

A behavioral treatment program was used to improve the functional skills of a 12-year-old anoxic child. Neuropsychological test results indicated marked amnesia and global cognitive deficits. Functionally, self-care tasks could be performed, but only with verbal and physical prompting. Introduction of a monetary reward system significantly reduced…

A study was aimed at developing a methodology for describing competent classroom teaching performance and analyzing components of competent classroom decision making to be used in improving preservice and inservice teacher training programs. Information processing research suggests that expertise in semantically rich domains involves the ability…

The effects of cognitive and behavioral orienting activities and practice on student learning of cued and uncued information were examined in this study. The subjects were 54 grade 9 students (28 males and 26 females), who were classified as high or low ability based on the verbal intelligence estimate of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. These…

Effects of embedded (appropriately positioned within text) and intact (outline format) headings on the processing of ecological and geological text material were examined in two separate studies. Suggesting that outlines may provide readers with global information about a passage and that embedded headings may aid in discovering relationships…

This study examines children's understanding of temporal markers and explores a strategy for teaching such understanding when it is absent. The original sample for this study consisted of 22 first graders and 85 kindergarten children. All subjects were individually pretested with the Temporal Marker Test (TMT) which evaluates performance on eight…

Programed instruction applies what is known about learning to educational psychology. The success of programed learning is determined by the material used and by the construction of this material. In order to construct effective learning sequences, the behavioral end products of instruction must be specified clearly and precisely. The subject…

As participants in a "choice training" program, three moderately/severely handicapped adolescents were reinforced or prompted first to select a leisure activity and then to sustain the activity for gradually longer periods of time with decreasing teacher supervision. Results included sustained activity maintenance from one week to four months…

Students in Grades six, seven, and eight were asked to integrate existing information and initially unknown answers to prose-related questions for answering superordinate questions. Results suggest that grade level development of hypothetico-deductive skills interacts with instructional prompt levels and that these skills are essential to…

Play-skills training, provided to eight Zambian elementary children with intellectual disabilities, resulted in more substantial increases in interaction between subjects and nondisabled children when coupled with teacher prompts, compared to training alone. Having a nondisabled child take the initiator role increased and maintained social…