Conditioning prosocial behaviors in a mentally retarded child without using instructions

This case study involves operant conditioning behavior in a mentally retarded child. Basically, physical reinforcers (M & M candies) were used to increase prosocial behaviors in a hyperactive, mentally retarded 3-yr-old girl. The prosocial behavior included increased attention and immobile behavior. No instructions were given the child regarding expected behavior or possible rewards for such behavior. Achieving instructionless conditioning in a young retarded child has implications for other children who have difficulty absorbing verbal instructions.     

Comparison of two prompting procedures to facilitate skill acquisition among severely mentally retarded adolescents

Six profoundly mentally retarded subjects were taught two tasks of comparable difficulty using different prompting procedures: an antecedent procedure, where the trainer prompted the learner prior to the subject's response and gradually faded the prompt on subsequent trials, approximating an errorless learning model, and a consequent procedure, where the trainer prompted the learner after an error response and gradually faded the prompt on subsequent corrections. Results show that greater gains were made with the antecedent prompting procedure compared to the consequent prompting procedure.     

Abuse-provoking characteristics of institutionalized mentally retarded individuals

Abuse-provoking characteristics of institutionalized mentally retarded individuals were examined. A group of 80 abused retarded clients in a residential setting were compared to a group of 80 nonabused clients. The two groups were compared on IQs, social quotients, presence of physical disabilities, aggressive behavior, ability to communicate verbally, presence of self-injurious behavior, ability to ambulate, sex, and age. Six of these characteristics (social quotient, aggression, verbal ability, age, self-injurious behavior, and ambulation) were significant in differentiating the abused from nonabused retarded individuals. A discriminant function was developed to help identify those clients who may be at risk of being abused.     

Research on parenting by mentally retarded persons

This article focuses on research related to the assessment and training of parenting competencies of persons with mental retardation and the status of the children being raised by retarded parents. Previous findings and that of our own investigations suggest that (1) children of mentally retarded parents are at risk for language and cognitive delays, mental retardation, maltreatment, and neglect; (2) child development is highly correlated with the quality of the home environment and mother-child interactions; (3) retarded mothers provide less positive interactions with their children during play than do nonretarded mothers; and (4) retarded mothers can be taught to improve their child-rearing skills.     

Mother-father-child interactions in families with a mentally retarded young child

The functioning of families with a mentally retarded young child was studied by examining maternal, paternal, and child interactions. Forty Israeli families with retarded children and a developmentally matched sample were observed at home. In families with a retarded child, there was less frequent maternal behavior toward the retarded child, less frequent communicative behavior of the retarded child toward the parents, and more frequent spousal interchanges with regard to the child. Fathers of retarded children differed less from fathers of nonretarded children than did mothers. Results were discussed in relation to home-based intervention with retarded children.     

Protective effects of the label "mentally retarded" on children's attitudes toward mentally retarded peers

The protective effect of the label "mentally retarded" was tested to determine whether the label could help ameliorate the negative attitudes children have toward mentally retarded peers who exhibit poor social behavior. Nonretarded fourth through sixth graders (n = 126) viewed a videotape of a mildly retarded target child reading. The target was either labeled or not labeled "mentally retarded" and was depicted as either socially withdrawn or aggressive. Assessment of children's attitudes indicated that the label had a protective effect when the retarded child was withdrawn but only a very weak effect when the child was aggressive. This suggests a limit to the protective effect of the label. Results reaffirmed the necessity of examining labels in combination with child characteristics in order to understand more fully the effects of labels.     

Effect of labeling and teacher behavior on children's attitudes.

Seventy-eight fourth-grade subjects from a rural school containing an integrated special-education program viewed one of two videotapes that depicted a child demonstrating various kinds of academic and social behavior. On one tape, the teacher reacted positively to the child's behavior; on the other, negatively. The subjects were told that the child on the tape was either a "normal," mentally retarded, or learning-disabled fourth grader. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of two teacher conditions (positive or negative) and one of three labeling conditions. After viewing the videotape, the subjects filled out a peer-acceptance questionnaire concerning the child on the videotape. Results indicated that across all labeling conditions the subjects rated the child higher on the questionnaire when the child was reacted to positively by the teacher and, further, that the "mentally retarded" label led to significantly higher peer-acceptance ratings than did the "normal" or "learning-disabled" label.     

Reward value of prosodic features of language for autistic,mentally retarded,and normal children

The present study pursued hypotheses relevant to prosodic abnormalities in the expressive language of autistic children. An operant paradigm was employed to measure the intrinsic reinforcing value of a verbally presented story for autistic, mentally retarded, and normal groups controlling for chronological age and performance mental age. Results suggested that both autistic and mentally retarded children could perceive prosodic cues, although only mentally retarded children are able to use them in their expressive language. It was also suggested that linguistic stimuli may have less intrinsic reinforcement value for autistic and mentally retarded children than for normal children. Implications for future research and treatment were discussed.     

Comparison and message-formulation skills in the referential communication of severely mentally retarded children

The importance of comparison and message-formulation skills in referential communication was studied with severely mentally retarded children. A store game task was used that required the child to communicate a choice of one or two objects on a shelf. Comparison training taught the children to select the appropriate object when paired with a similar but inappropriate object. Message training taught the children to communicate by pointing and/or gesturing. Results indicated that combined comparison and message training produced higher communication accuracy than did comparison training alone. Comparison training, however, increased subjects' accuracy of communicating as compared to an untrained control group. A parallel pattern of results was found for communication frequency. The training groups either maintained or improved their communicative performance in a near-generalization task, suggesting that they learned communicative behavior and not merely task-specific behavior.     

Use of the partial-sequential withdrawal design to assess maintenance of mentally retarded adults' acquired meal preparation skills

This study is presented as a follow-up to an earlier fully-controlled acquisition study in which three mentally retarded adults had acquired the ability to use sequenced picture recipe cards to prepare breakfast and dinner meals. Immediately following the acquisition demonstration, instructional components and trainers were partially-sequentially withdrawn. Reliable self-reports from the subjects and their mentally retarded roommates were established prior to trainer withdrawal. The demonstrated self-report method provided a means to assess performance following the withdrawal of trainers. Performance was maintained during a 10 month period.     

The family system of moderately mentally retarded children

ABSTRACT. Families of 39 moderately mentally retarded children (behaviourally disordered and non-behaviourally disordered) were classified according to the Reiss Card-Sort procedure. Thirty-four out of the 39 families were found to have a faulty family system according to Reiss' typology, distant sensitive or consensus sensitive Though behaviour disorders in the moderately mentally retarded child were not found to be related to the type of faulty family, parental perceptions of their child's behavioural disorder were different in the distant sensitive and consensus sensitive types. Results are discussed in the context of the interface between the family system and the adaptation of the mentally retarded child.     

Institutional tour effects on attitudes related to mental retardation.

The effects of an institutional tour on college students' attitudes toward the mentally retarded child, mentally retarded adult, state school for mentally retarded persons, and ward attendant at a state school for mentally retarded persons were investigated. Four separate Semantic Differential Scales were administered to 179 subjects prior to being given the alternative of touring a state school for mentally retarded persons (72 subjects took the tour). Pretest responses were used to divide subjects into initially positive or negative attitude groups. Posttest scores for each concept were then analyzed by a two-way classification mixed-models analysis of variance for unequal Ns. Results indicated significant positive effects on attitudes toward mental retardation as a function of the institutional tour.     

Attitudes of parents of mentally retarded children toward normalization activities.

Parents of mentally retarded children were surveyed via a 5-point Likert scale to determine their attitudes toward normalization in general and in relation to their child. Results indicated significant differences in response, with the more positive attitudes being those associated with a general (the mentally retarded population) rather than specific (my child) referent. Within the general-referent group, parents of TMR children displayed the most positive attitudes. Age, sex, and level of retardation had no effect on child-specific responses.     

Modeling and shaping by parents to develop chewing behavior in their retarded child

A moderately retarded 8-yr-old mongoloid child was taught to chew solid food. A series of steps was used to teach the child to chew his food. They included (1) removing attention for non-chewing behavior (2) having a model demonstrate chewing behavior (3) reinforcing the model with the subject's favorite food (4) reinforcing successive approximations to chewing and (5) attenuating the reinforcement schedule.The child developed chewing behavior during the sixth session. The rate of chewing continued to increase until after 3 weeks of treatment the child's rate of chewing was too high to measure. A 42-week follow-up established that chewing had continued and that the child was chewing additional solid foods.     

Evaluation of a program of systematic instructional procedures for extremely poor retarded children.

A demonstration program was conducted in which 54 innercity children classified as educable mentally retarded were selected on the basis of age, IQ, family income, race, and achievement scores. They were then placed into self-contained classrooms with two classes being taught by precision-teaching procedures and two classes being taught by the methods particular to their teachers. Tesults showed that a high percentage (60 percent) of the children taught by precision-teaching procedured were capable of acquiring the basic skills necessary for regular-class placement.     

Acquisition and extension of syntactic repertoires by severely mentally retarded youth

This study investigated the conditions that contribute to generalized language learning in severely mentally retarded children. Matrix-training strategies were used to teach three mentally retarded children syntactic rules for combining known words into two- and three-word utterances. The children applied these rules subsequently to learn unknown words. Generalized learning of responses not taught directly was shown to be under experimental control using a multiple baseline design across submatrices. Training only a limited number of responses was sufficient to promote recombinative generalization in the trained modality and transfer to untrained responses in the opposite modality. Teaching receptive and expressive language responses while simultaneously promoting untrained responding through matrix training provides an economical and efficient training approach for mentally retarded individuals.     

The elimination of a child's in-class masturbation by overcorrection and reinforcement

An eight-year-old mentally retarded, behaviorally disturbed child, attending a public-school based day treatment program, frequently masturbated during pre-academic instructional sessions. Attempts at modifying the masturbation through the reinforcement of incompatible behaviors were unsuccessful. When the child was required to “practice” a series of overcorrection responses contingent upon masturbation, a rapid suppression of the behavior was produced. All masturbation was eliminated after eight days of overcorrection treatment. At one-month, six-month, and twelve-month follow-ups, the behavior remained absent.     

Generalized action-object verbal instruction-following by profoundly mentally retarded adults

The acquisition of generalized action-object instruction-following by three profoundly mentally retarded adults was investigated. Each subject was taught to follow seven verbal instructions in a stairstep diagonal progression through a 4 X 4 matrix of actions and objects. Probes monitored the occurrence of generalized action-object instruction-following responses within a multiple baseline design. As subjects were taught action-object responses, they responded to novel, untrained instructions that were comprised by recombining previously learned actions and objects. Prior matrix-training language research was systematically replicated, and findings were extended to profoundly retarded adults.     

Training nonverbal and verbal play skills to mentally retarded and autistic children

Two mentally retarded boys with autism and one mentally retarded girl with Down syndrome were taught to initiate and play a ball game with an adult confederate. The program targeted both nonverbal responses related to the actual execution of the ball game as well as verbal responses for play initiation and providing compliments for the confederate's behavior. Training sessions provided ample practice in all aspects of the game from initiation to termination through use of brief play cycles. Instruction was provided using a combination of physical and verbal prompts as well as reinforcement and time-out. All three children learned the game and by the study's completion executed multiple play cycles each session. The implications of combining play and social skills training in programming for developmentally handicapped children are discussed.We greatly appreciate the technical assistance provided by Dr. Perry Prestholdt and Linda Roussel. We also thank Vetta Johnson and Cris Craigie for their production contributions. Finally, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to the families of the children for their cooperation and dedication throughout the course of this project.     

Degrees of specificity in task analysis

The effects of training identical tasks using three different degrees of task-analysis specificity (long, 28 steps; medium, 14 steps; and short, 7 steps) were assessed. Mildly, moderately, and severely mentally retarded vocational rehabilitation clients were taught to assemble three apparatuses (lawn mower engine, electric drill, carburetor) in a counterbalanced design. The short task analysis resulted in most errors in training, but training time did not differ. A Level of Retardation X Treatment interaction indicated that although all subjects made more errors during training with the short task analysis, severely retarded subjects made the most errors in that condition.