Teaching New Skills to the Severely Handicapped

Use of Teacher-Paced Instruction in Developing and Maintaining Independent Self-Feeding

“…For example, many types of sheltered work activities and home living skills require that a series of behaviors be performed in a repetitious but evenly-paced manner. Sometimes it is observed that an individual's performance deteriorates after acquisi tion has occurred (Liberty, Haring, & Martin, 1981;Sowers, Rusch, Connis, & Cummings, 1980). In these situations, teacher-paced instruction may be an effec tive procedure to use in reestablishing appropriate pat terns of performance.…”

A Model for Analyzing Instructional Components To Facilitate Generalization for Severely Handicapped Students

“…Though this instructional component might be expected to influence generalization as well as acquisition, the issue requires further research, particularly in light of the tendency of most educators to rely on the corrections approach. As Liberty, Haring, and Martin (1981) noted, this approach might inadvertently impede acquisition of new skills by severely handicapped students, and might be expected to impede generalization as well. _ 1:1 vs. group instructional ratios Differential effects of number of trainers have already been discussed.…”

The Development of Object Permanence in Children with Intellectual Disability, Physical Disability, Autism, and Blindness

“…Hayes and Hayes (1987) advocated combining cognitive development approaches with instructional strategies founded in behavioural theory. Drawing from Liberty, Haring, and Martin's (1981) classic article on teaching new skills to learners with severe disabilities, the following principles would apply: define the target behaviour (in this case, the specific object permanence task determined by assessment); carefully consider the antecedents and consequences (including reinforcement and correction conditions); determine the appropriate number of repetitions and time for each instructional period; change the objects used (in this case, change the objects to be hidden and the occluders/screens); change directions and prompts to support generalisation; and consider the role of demonstration. Children with physical disabilities need opportunities to exhibit object permanence knowledge through looking behaviours and speech, although in some cases prosthetics will enable them to demonstrate object permanence knowledge through the typical means of reach and grasp.…”