Modifying maternal teaching style: effects of task arrangement on the match-to-sample performance of retarded preschool-age-children.

Twenty-one mothers and their retarded preschool-age children were observed during six teaching sessions. Following the first three sessions, each mother-child dyad was assigned to one of the three groups. Groups were matched on measures of mother and child behavior and on measures of various mother and child background factors. Prior to the last three teaching sessions, mothers received instructions to modify certain aspects of their teaching style. The results indicated that children of mothers who had been instructed to present the materials of the task systematically obtained significantly higher performance scores during training than did children of mothers who either received no instruction or had been told to increase positive feedback for correct responses. Further, 6 of 7 children whose mothers had altered the manner in which they presented the task materials showed improvement on a test administered after training. These results suggest that nonverbal activities which precede responding are critical aspects of teaching style and deserve more attention than they have received in the past.