PUB TYPE Reports- Research/Technical (143)-- Information Analyses (070) '1

An attempt was made to train nine severely mentally retaded children to be-more effective communicators within a reftntial communication paradigm. The researchers sought, too, to exam'ne the impoitance of three skills involved in formulating an effective message: coping/with referents similar to the noneeferents, comparison,skills, and ability to transmit a message. The investigatiOn used a store game task and was divided into five phases, including a familiarization task phase, two training phases,- and a near generalization ' phase. Modeling and feedback were used in all training conditions.,'Interactions between dyads were videotaped. Analysis of communication frequency and accuracy data revealed that, Ss receiving both comparison and message formulation training had the largest gains in communication accuracy following training and also demonstrated impressive increases in communication frequency. Performance of Ss receiying only comparison training did not improye as much, as the comparison and message training Ss.- Results suggest that ts'learned transferable, communication behavibrs. (CL) I