Abstract
This study examined the effects of the use of picture cards and manual signs as facilitators in language training, designed to develop two-word combination skills in a mentally retarded child. The two methods did not yield significant differences either in number of sessions required to reach mastery criteria for target sentences, or in pause durations between the first and second words in two-word utterances. However, the productions of subject nouns tended to be facilitated in the picture card method, whereas verb productions were more readily elicited in the sign method. These results suggested that the two methods did not differ in the extent to which two-word combinations are prompted, but that the functional mechanism underlying these methods is quite different. An analysis of word pause durations also indicated that intervals may decrease even before the attainment of mastery criteria. It was concluded that two-word productions in a mentally retarded child require both the acquisition of language structure rules and word retrieval skills.
