A severely intellectually delayed and physically handicapped 18-year-old woman was taught a direct select color encoding strategy as a potential means of increasing the available vocabulary on her communication board using a "chained matching-to-sample" procedure. The skill was maintained and generalized to new exemplars. (Author/DB)

This study of an adult with severe mental retardation and severe physical impairments found that the subject learned the cause-and-effect relationship between her voice commands and resultant action controlling environmental devices, differentiated various vocalizations for different environmental actions, and experienced positive affect when she…

The effectiveness of a multi-element approach to increase the self-determination of three adolescents with physical and multiple disabilities was examined. The intervention involved equipment and performance adaptations, brief in-school simulation training, and instruction and support for parents and home assistance providers. Dramatic increases…