Matrix training strategies were used to teach three severely mentally retarded children syntactic rules for combining known words into two- and three-word utterances. 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…

The study demonstrated the utility of the alternating treatments design in determining the most efficacious language training approach with mentally retarded children. Oral communication, total communication, and modified total communication were each used with two children in three trials. The preferred approach was consistent within each subject…

Two experiments with a total of 17 adolescents or adults with severe mental retardation evaluated the potential of exclusion procedures (selection of an undefined object in comparison with a defined object) as a means of training basic naming skills. Reliable exclusion and naming performance were demonstrated in nearly all subjects. (DB)

This study evaluated the effects of a home-based parent training program on the language development of young children of 28 mothers with mental retardation. Interaction training consisted of verbal instruction, modeling, feedback, and tangible reinforcement. After training, parent/child interaction scores were no longer lower than those of a…