Training Generalized Functional Acquisition of “Yes” and “No” in Three Retarded Children

Abstract

A study was conducted to test a training procedure designed to establish functional expressive usage of “yes” and “no” in the language skills of three institutionalized retardates. The procedure employed a trainer and a “modeler”, who served as a second trainer, in the context of a training module which utilized a match-mismatch paradigm to facilitate acquisition of generalized “yes-no” usage. The procedure utilized a pretest-posttest, changing-criterion experimental design to evaluate acquisition and limited generalization of the two responses as a function of the contingent reinforcement training procedure. The procedure was demonstrated to be successful with the three subjects.