Training generalized receptive prepositions in retarded children

Abstract

THREE RETARDED CHILDREN WERE TRAINED, USING PROMPTING AND REINFORCEMENT PROCEDURES, TO RESPOND CORRECTLY TO THREE CATEGORIES OF PREPOSITIONAL REQUESTS: "put the-next to the-", "put the-under the-", and "put the-on top of the-". Training sessions were alternated with probe sessions throughout the study. During training, a child was trained to respond to one request (e.g., "put the doll next to the cup"); during probing, the child was tested for generalization of this training to untrained requests. Responses to untrained requests were never prompted nor reinforced. The results showed that, as requests from one category were trained, the children's responses to the untrained requests of that category became increasingly correct. As discriminations among two or more categories were trained, the children's responses to the untrained requests of those categories also became increasingly correct. Thus, the methods employed appear to be successful in training generalized receptive discrimination among prepositional categories and possibly can be utilized in training other generalized receptive language skills.