Teaching an Adolescent with Blindness and Severe Disabilities: A Correspondence between Requesting and Selecting Preferred Objects

Abstract

Findings in the existing literature on the lack of correspondence between verbal behavior and subsequent learner actions refer primarily to learners' descriptions of their behavior. No data exist on another type of correspondence—the match between verbal requests and items selected by learners with severe disabilities. Often, such learners are taught to request objects without being required to then select the object requested. This study examines the efficiency of an intervention procedure designed to establish correspondence between requesting and subsequent reinforcer selection in an adolescent woman diagnosed as blind and severely mentally retarded. The results indicated that valid requesting could be established by reinforcement procedures which required a correspondence between verbal requests and subsequent object selections. The learner also was taught to use generalized and explicit requesting repertoires as a function of object availability. The results highlight a need to incorporate correspondence procedures when teaching requesting repertoires to learners with severe disabilities.