Use of Peers to Train and Monitor the Performance of Adolescents with Severe Handicaps 1

Abstract

Two peer trainers, one moderately mentally retarded and one severely mentally retarded, each taught three peers who were severely handicapped to perform separate steps of a complex assembly line task (packaging or assembly task). Peer trainers were taught to demonstrate correct performance and to praise or correct trainees’ performance contingently. Following training, each trainer monitored the performance of three trainees, who worked simultaneously but independently at separate work stations on one of the assembly line tasks. Results of the investigation, evaluated within a multiple baseline (across peer trainers) design, indicated that trainers were successful in training and monitoring the performance of their peers. During baseline, no objects were packaged or assembled correctly by either group of trainees. Following instruction by a trainer, each group completed an average of 80 or 86 percent of the objects correctly when the trainer was available to monitor performance.