Compared was the effectiveness of language development training in 29 educable retarded children (mean CA 7.7 years) and associative grouping training in 32 educable retarded children (mean CA 8.3 years). Trained teachers instructed the children for daily half-hour sessions using either the Peabody Language Development Kit or sequenced activities designed to teach organization and learning and recall strategy. Analysis of test data (including the sampling organization and recall through strategies test and two subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities) indicated that the Ss trained to seek and utilize associations between stimuli improved significantly on sorting and recall measures. Although training in associative grouping improved utilization of presented organization, no differences were found between the groups on measures of total recall. (CL)