Teaching toy play to developmentally disabled adolescents : acquisition, difficulty, and generality of toy function

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a behavioral training program on the simple toy play responses of three adolescents with severe and profound mental retardation. Also investigated were possible differences in the difficulty in initial acquisition and generality of the five toy functions chosen: direct push, build, pull, indirect electronic push, and wind. Two toys in each functional category were used. Using a multiple baseline across subjects design, each subject was scored on appropriate toy play during each session. Baseline sessions consisted simply of presenting the toy to the, subject and requesting him/her to play with it. During treatment sessions, the training sequence consisted of a verbal stimulus, a verbal instruction, modeling, shadowing, partial graduated guidance, and full graduated guidance. All subjects received positive reinforcement (i.e., verbal and physical praise with or without edibles) following every appropriate response. Because all subjects reached the prespecified mastery level of each of the 10 toys, it was concluded that the training sequence was an efficient technology in teaching toy play responses. In addition, the relative difficulty among and generality within functions was discussed.Thesis (M.A.