The Effectiveness of Two Strategies for Teaching Students with Blindness and Mental Retardation

To investigate the crossmodal transfer effects of verbal information to the performance of manual tasks, this study compared the effectiveness of two strategies—manual guidance only and manual guidance plus verbal prompts—with students whose multiple disabilities included total blindness and severe mental retardation. Within the framework of an alternating treatments design, the two strategies were differentially applied to two tasks. The results suggest that prompting methods that require shifting verbal information to the performance of a manual task may interfere with the learning of students with such multiple disabilities.

Crossmodal Transfer of Stimulus Control: Preparing Students with Severe Multiple Disabilities for Audiological Assessment

Crossmodal transfer of stimulus control procedures was used to establish reliable responding to an auditory cue in three severely multiply handicapped students who had previously failed to demonstrate reliable responses to stimuli presented in the auditory mode. As a result, all three students were able to participate in formal audiometric evaluations of their hearing status. Procedures were designed to be replicable in a typical classroom setting serving severely handicapped students. Results are discussed in terms of their utility in facilitating audiological testing for untestable persons and in terms of implications for teaching students functional use of the auditory sensory channel.