Teaching Athletic Skills to Students Who are Mentally Retarded

Abstract

P.L. 94–142 provides the right to physical education for handicapped pupils including nonacademic and extracurricular activities such as athletics. Despite the legislative mandate for physical education and the value of athletic activity, few validated programs have been published to teach complex gross motor skills, such as sports, to mentally retarded students. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to evaluate procedures to teach athletic skills to moderately and severely mentally retarded students. Participants were taught the standing long jump (Experiment 1) and the 50-yard dash (Experiment 2), using task analysis and a training package of prompts and response consequences. Experimental control was evaluated by the multiple baseline across subjects design. Results showed acquisition and maintenance of the two athletic skills. The efficacy of behavioral techniques for teaching athletic skills to moderately and severely retarded persons is also discussed.