Effects of Developmentally Sequenced Instruction on the Rate of Skill Acquisition by Severely Handicapped Students

Abstract

This study tested the use of a developmental model to sequence instruction for one group of severely handicapped students. Twenty students in classes for trainable mentally retarded children served as subjects. Each subject was taught as many as 10 target behaviors in each of two areas—preacademics and communication. These behaviors were either developmentally sequenced, i.e, arranged according to normative data; or nondevelopmentally sequenced, i.e., the target behaviors were randomly ordered. Instruction consisted of 400 trials in each skill area. The dependent measure was the average number of trials-to-criterion. Findings suggest that developmental sequencing (of the sort attempted here) may provide an adequate general guide for selecting and sequencing curricula and instruction, but does not provide precise skill sequences which have significant effects on learning rate.