An institutional peer-teaching model was tested by comparing two procedures to teach language to profoundly retarded residents under the supervision of attendants. The control procedure was a nonspecific play interaction and the experimental procedure was a structured program. In both groups three attendants each supervised two trainers who in turn taught two students on an individual basis. Each student obtained 13 training hours during the 2-month study. Experimental students made significantly larger language gains but not larger mental age gains than did control students. Experimental trainers were superior in six teaching behaviors to the control trainers.
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