Increasing Requests made by People with Developmental Disabilities and Deaf-Blindness through the Use of Behavior Interruption Strategies

Abstract

The staff of an apartment-based residential support program were taught to use behavior interrup-tion strategies to elicit requesting functions from two subjects with mental retardation and deaf-blindness. Results indicated that the staff were able to learn to use the strategies after a short workshop and initial support and that their use of the strategies resulted in increased rates of requesting from both of the subjects. One subject also showed dramatic increases in her use of self-initiated requests, while the second subject showed lesser gains in this area. Implications for residential support programs and recommendations for further research are discussed.