Teaching banking skills to mildly mentally retarded adolescents.

In this study, two experiments evaluated a classroom training program designed to teach basic banking skills to three mildly mentally retarded adolescents. The participants were taught to open savings and checking accounts during Experiment I and to conduct banking transactions during Experiment II. The banking transaction skills acquired in Experiment II maintained at high levels and generalized to two novel environments for two participants, whereas moderate generalization and maintenance scores were obtained by the third participant. The average performance of the mentally retarded participants compared favorably with the scores obtained by 10 college student volunteers in both the percentage of correct responses and the pattern of incorrect responses.