Recent research suggests that humans and other animals have sophisticated abilities to extract both statistical dependencies and rule-based regularities from sequences. Most of this research stresses the flexibility and generality of such processes. Here the authors take up an equally important project, namely, to explore the limits of such…

Toddlers' (MA = 22 and 27 months) ability to extend newly taught verbs to new situational and sentential contexts was investigated. Children were interactively taught two novel verbs, presented in only the transitive frame (e.g. "You're lorping the ball"), in a playroom setting. They then viewed the verb actions presented on side-by-side monitors…

Two experiments explore children's spontaneous labeling of novel objects as a method to study early lexical access. The experiments also provide new evidence on children's attention to object shape when labeling objects. In Experiment 1, the spontaneous productions of 21 23- to 28-month-olds (mean 26;28) shown a set of novel, unnamed objects were…

We evaluated and treated swimming pool avoidance that was exhibited by a 14-year-old girl diagnosed with autism. In part, treatment involved blocking for flopping (dropping to the ground) and elopement (running away from the pool) and access to food for movements toward a swimming pool. Treatment also involved reinforcement for exposure to various…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of facilitating generalized use of teaching strategies by parents of children with autism within daily routines. Method: Five preschool children with autism participated in intervention with a parent within daily routines in the family's home. Parents learned to include 2 teaching…

Models and modeling are frequently used as instructional tools in science education to convey important information concerning both the explanatory and structural features of topic areas in science. The efficacy of models as such rests almost entirely upon students' ability to conceptualize them as abstracted "representations" of…

This final report describes the activities of a 3-year project that investigated the effectiveness and efficiency of five stimulus control procedures for teaching individuals with severe disabilities in classroom and community-based settings. The research was conducted in public schools in the northern Illinois area and included the following five…

This study investigated effects of the application of Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) with four preschool children with developmental disabilities during interactions with three primary conversational partners. The study involved a multiple baseline (probe) across two children which was replicated across two additional children. Within that…

This volume attempts to bring together a collection of reports on the Geometric Supposer, a series of computer software environments which can be a tool for exploring particulars and generalizations in geometry. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "A Personal View of the Supposer: Reflections on Particularities and Generalities in…

This paper maintains that the best approach to writing across the curriculum is one that focuses on thinking and writing strategies that cut across a number of subject areas. The paper describes some methods and classroom tested activities found to be successful in teaching students the complex thinking skills involved in making and supporting…

This paper describes the planning of a qualitative research methodology to develop strategies to improve and expand social interaction skills of deaf-blind students in supported employment settings. Characteristics of qualitative research are delineated and include: definition of the domain of the research; an evolving study design; behavior…

This booklet reviews the literature and suggests effective strategies for teaching social skills to children and youth with autism. The first chapter reviews the four common approaches for promoting social development. An individual chapter is then given to each of these: direct skill instruction; antecedent prompting procedures; peer-initiated…

A structure for the accreditation of Britain's third Youth Training Scheme outcome, ability to transfer, must be developed immediately. By all indications, the outcome cannot be graded in a way that matches the levels proposed for the National Vocational Qualification structure. Instead, ability to transfer should be seen as a component of…

Effects of a self-instructional training procedure on the on-task behavior of four mentally retarded young adults in a sheltered workshop were investigated using a multiple-baseline design across subjects. The subjects chosen had been identified as demonstrating a high incidence of off-task behavior for small assembly tasks such as stamping and…

A conceptual framework of social competence is presented to formulate actions that will enhance the social competence of learners with mental disabilities. This chapter discusses the individual's culturally determined inputs; the processes of social affects, social skills, and social thinking; and the desired social outcomes. The history of social…