Teacher activity level and the presence or absence of retarded adolescent mediators on sorting performances of preschool retarded children

Five male preschool students performing a black-white square sorting task were prompted by an adult experimenter alone, five trainable mentally retarded male adolescents alone, the experimenter and five adolescents jointly, or were not prompted at all. The social behaviors of the adolescents were observed in their classroom for changes as a result of being a peer mediator. Also recorded was the percentage of time the experimenter spent immediately mediating the preschool students. Praise, tokens, and varied edible reinforcers were contingently administered to both the preschool students and the adolescent mediators. The results showed that any mediation was significantly superior to no mediation, the five adolescents were as effective as the adult, and joint mediation by the adult and five adolescents was superior to the adult alone mediation. Joint mediation was also significantly superior to mediation by the adolescents alone in producing high rates of preschool student square sorting. No significant changes in the social behavior of the adolescent mediators occurred in their classroom as a result of serving as a mediator