Say-do-report training to change chronic behaviors in mentally retarded subjects.

Two mentally retarded subjects with language deficits participated. A say-do-report correspondence training was implemented to break the functions of present conditions given by a long history of contingencies maintaining chronic inadequate patterns of behavior. The say-do-report procedure was implemented following a multiple baseline design across two behaviors in one subject and in an AB design for the other. During baseline, all possible social contingencies maintaining the inadequate behaviors were eliminated. Promising or saying what a subject would do was then implemented and followed by the differential reinforcement of say-do correspondence reports. All behaviors changed and were maintained at an appropriate level, even after eliminating the components involved in the say-do-report procedure, that is, the reports, the extra consequences, and even the promise. Results are discussed in the context of verbal behavior altering the function of present conditions in subjects with limited verbal repertory, as well as in the context of new applications to make a difference in chronic behaviors.