This study examined the effects of teaching employees with moderate mental retardation who were nonreaders to use sight words to self-initiate job tasks in competitive employment settings. The training package was comprised of: a) a progressive time delay procedure to teach sight word recognition; b) a verbalized “Did-Next-Now” self-instruction technique; and c) a written work routine checklist for self-monitoring. Use of the combined package resulted in the acquisition of: reading job-specific sight words; use of verbalized self-instruction; use of the self-monitoring checklist; self-initiation of work tasks across the workday; and an increase in employer satisfaction. This study contributes to the sight word research by demonstrating functional use of reading within an employment setting and to incorporate sight words in self-instruction training.
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