Increasing verbal interaction among elderly socially isolated mentally retarded adults: a group language training procedure.

The present study examined the effectiveness of a group language training procedure for directly increasing and generalizing the rate of verbal interaction among four elderly, socially isolated, moderately mentally retarded men. A withdrawal of treatment design was used to examine the effect of the procedure that used verbal prompts. behavioral rehearsal, and contingent social praise. Changes in behavior were examined in two generalization settings, one similar to the training environment (Generalization I) and the other arranged as part of the subjects' daily routine (Generalization II). Baseline data indicated no verbal interaction among the subjects. During treatment the training procedure increased the rate of subjects' verbal interactions not only in the training situation, but also in the two generalization settings. An analysis of the data obtained during the Generalization II situation indicated that subjects' verbal interaction increased not only among themselves, but with nonsubject peers present in this setting. Follow-up data showed that increases in rates of verbal interaction were maintained four months after the cessation of training. The implications of the results for program generalization and work with the language deficient individual is discussed.