The effects of A Retarded Child's Social Initiations on the behavior of Severely Retarded School-Aged Peers

Abstract

In order to increase the social responsiveness of two severely retarded and withdrawn children, a mildly retarded peer was trained to emit social approach behaviors using a training procedure devised by Strain (1977). Edible reinforcement was delivered by the trained peer contingent upon positive social responding by the target subjects. The results indicate that a retarded child can be trained to influence the social responsiveness of severely retarded, withdrawn children within an intra-class, peer-mediated format, and with minimal direct teacher involvement.