Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

Manual communication has been successfully used to teach many nonverbal children to express themselves; however, little research is available regarding the comparative efficiency and effectiveness of different sign systems. The purpose of this study was to compare the intelligibility of a set of Ameslan and Amerind signs prior to and after an instructional unit. As indicated by the results of the statistical analyses, Amerind signs were more intelligible to the untrained viewer, were more intelligible after training, and were more intelligible after a two-week time delay when compared to Ameslan signs for the same concepts. Implications for manual communication training are discussed.

Thirty-two moderately and severely retarded adults engaged in a vocational evaluation and training program to determine the predictive value of several dexterity measures as they relate to shop productivity. Results indicate the usefulness of common dexterity measures for predicting future unit rates, and the relative advantage of task analytic worksamples as a method of predicting accuracy and evolving individual training strategies.

A single subject design with one replication was used to assess the effects of self-monitoring and self-delivered reward with retarded children. Results indicate that the two boys who served as subjects were highly responsive to self-management procedures. On-task behavior improved for both subjects during self-monitoring of study behavior. This effect was short-lived, however, and not as dramatic as the changes found with self-delivered reward procedures.

Selected career education curriculums were examined to determine the cognitive content implicit in career education to determine its appropriateness for the mildly mentally retarded population, and to identify levels of achievement as measured by selected test items in the cognitive domain of career education. The current performance status of the mildly mentally retarded in terms of the cognitive content adjudged appropriate was compared with that of a nonretarded comparison group.