Teaching mentally retarded children to use an experimental device for telling time and meeting appointments.

This study evaluated a program for teaching mentally retarded children to use an experimental clock-agenda combination (CAC). The CAC was designed to serve as a prosthetic device for children with minimal numerical skills and time concepts to (a) tell time to the nearest 5-minute interval, and (b) meet scheduled appointments. The target skills were trained in two phases, each of which consisted of two or more steps and substeps. A modified multiple-probe technique was used for each phase. Three mildly mentally retarded children and one moderately retarded child served as subjects. The data indicated that all subjects acquired both skills in 5 to 10 hours.