SPEECH TRAINING OF A MENTALLY RETARDED CHILD WITH OPERANT PROCEDURES (1)

Abstract

For a few years, we have been applying a speech training program with operant procedures to mentally retarded children. This paper presents a case study of this program applied to the mentally retarded who need explicit remedial speech training. The case is a three years and four months old boy with hyperactive, autistic behavior and a few vocalization. The training procedures, containing making puzzles, motor imitation, speech sound imitation and word imitation were used. Chocolate were used as a reinforcer. The speech therapist also intended to reinforce the desirable behavior such as sitting quietly in a chair and attending to simple tasks. The results were as follows: (1) His vocalizations increased. (2) He learned to imitate speech sound such as the discriminative signal of the therapist. (3) He acquired imitative speech such as "papa" "mama" (4) He acquired responsive speech such as "yes," "bye bye." (5) He began to show more interest toward the therapist, his family members and neighbouring persons. This case will be needed to have more extensive training such as receptive vocabulary, naming, phrase imitation and so on.