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GENERALIZED LANGUAGE LEARNING BY CHILDREN WITH SEVERE MENTAL RETARDATION: EFFECTS OF PEERS' EXPRESSIVE MODELING
Author(s) -
Goldstein Howard,
Mousetis Lori
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1901/jaba.1989.22-245
Subject(s) - generalization , psychology , referent , multiple baseline design , observational study , modalities , language acquisition , word (group theory) , cognitive psychology , observational learning , developmental psychology , linguistics , intervention (counseling) , mathematics education , psychiatry , medicine , mathematical analysis , social science , philosophy , mathematics , pathology , sociology , experiential learning
In this study, we investigated the conditions that contribute to observational learning of generalized language in children with severe mental retardation. Matrix‐training strategies were used to teach 6 children with mental retardation to combine known words into two‐ or three‐word utterances consistent with syntactic rules. Subsequently, the children learned two or more unknown words concurrently, inducing word‐referent relations consistent with these word order rules. Generalized learning of responses not taught directly was shown to be under experimental control using a multiple baseline design across submatrices. Expressive modeling of only four or five responses was sufficient to promote recombinative generalization in the expressive and receptive modalities. Thus, 95% to 98% of subjects' learning was attributed to generalization processes. This study demonstrates how the efficiency of language training with children with mental retardation might be enhanced by coupling observational learning and matrix‐training strategies.