Applied research in mental retardation最新文献

The impact of two variations of teacher attention to oral reading errors and a notreatment control condition were compared in an alternating treatment design. For four moderately mentally retarded children, each uncorrected oral reading error was followed by: (a) immediate teacher attention, with the teacher correcting the error word as soon as it occured, (b) delayed teacher attention, with the teacher correcting the error word at the end of the sentence in which it occured or within 10 to 15 seconds if the subject paused following an error, or (c) no teacher attention. Both immediate and delayed teacher attention were effective in reducing the number of uncorrected oral reading errors and increasing the number of self-corrections when compared to the no-treatment control. However, the delayed condition had greater effect than the immediate condition on both measures. In a later remediation phase, when only the delayed treatment was given, uncorrected errors remained at low levels whereas self-corrections generally increased. Total errors whether subsequently self-corrected or not, with one exception, decreased during the study.

In this study, two experiments evaluated a classroom training program designed to teach basic banking skills to three mildly mentally retarded adolescents. The participants were taught to open savings and checking accounts during Experiment I and to conduct banking transactions during Experiment II. The banking transaction skills acquired in Experiment II maintained at high levels and generalized to two novel environments for two participants, whereas moderate generalization and maintenance scores were obtained by the third participant. The average performance of the mentally retarded participants compared favorably with the scores obtained by 10 college student volunteers in both the percentage of correct responses and the pattern of incorrect responses.

This study evaluates the impact of self-monitoring on three heterosexual conversational behaviors of head trauma youths. Two 5-minute audiotaped conversations occured daily between the youths and unfamiliar female confederates. Two conversations occuring on alternate days in clinical and natural conversational settings were scored for the frequency of compliments, questions, and self-disclosures. A multiple baseline analysis with alternating treatments for “instructions to self-monitor” and “no instructions to self-monitor” revealed (a) self-monitoring had an accelerative effect on compliments and questions and a decelerative effect on self-disclosure; (b) self-monitoring effects were maintained despite transferring from a mechanical counter to an unspecified covert monitoring procedure; (c) self-monitoring had a comparable effect whether employed in a clinical or functional communication setting; (d) performance of the target behavior was most strongly influenced under the “instructions to self-monitor condition;” (e) once intervention was directed to another response, the rate under the instructions and no instruction conditions became equivalent; and (f) the results maintained over a 1-month follow-up for one youth available for observation. Finally, social comparison and subjective evaluation data supported the importance of intervention.

Depression and learned helplessness were examined in a sample of 26 educably mentally retarded (EMR) adolescents and a matched (on age, sex, and race) group of 26 nonmentally retarded adolescents. Depression and learned helplessness were assessed using the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) and Mastery Orientation Inventory (MOI), respectively. Results indicated that EMR adolescents manifested significantly (p<.001) greater depressive symptomalogy than their nonmentally retarded peers. Sex differences were also found, with females demonstrating greater depression scores in both groups. Analysis of severity of symptom endorsement showed significant group differences on items reflecting somatic, self-evaluative, and behavioral components of depression, with mentally retarded subjects demonstrating higher scores. Mentally retarded adolescents were found to score higher (p < .001) on the learned helplessness measure than nonmentally retarded adolescents. Given the problematic nature of depression noted in large sample epidemiological studies of nonmentally retarded adolescents, the results of this investigation indicate that depression in EMR adolescents is an affective characteristic in need of further study.

This study evaluated the change in activity patterns and skills of severely/profoundly mentally retarded, multiply-handicapped residents as they moved from large total care institutions to community living. Twenty-seven individuals were evaluated just before leaving the institution, 3 months post-exit, and 9 months post-exit. In comparison to a nondisabled reference group, residents were less active, mobile, social, and independent both in the institution and community. Residents did show, however, significant changes toward the nondisabled pattern of daily living after moving to the community. Clients improved in 4 of 16 skill areas within 3 months after entering the community: expressive communication, eating, serving meals and washing dishes, and meal preparation.