A study on teaching appropriate play skills to visually impaired, emotionally handicapped, nonverbal, profoundly retarded adolescents

This study examines the effectiveness of verbal prompting combined with concentrated lighting as a technique for teaching play behavior to visually impaired, emotionally handicapped, nonverbal, profoundly retarded adolescents. Unlike adolescents of average emotional, physical, or intellectual ability, the population of visually impaired, emotionally handicapped, nonverbal, profoundly retarded adolescents must be taught play behaviors. Research has shown that adolescents with sensory and intellectual deficits may learn as a result of modifications to their environment or modeling. Other studies have demonstrated that mentally retarded or multiply impaired adolescents can acquire new behaviors through reinforced repetitions. However, little research is available on methods of teaching or the play behaviors of visually impaired, emotionally handicapped, nonverbal, profoundly retarded adolescents. As a result, educators have consistently depended upon physical interactions, edible reinforcers, or a combination of restrictive techniques to teach visually impaired, emotionally handicapped, nonverbal, profoundly retarded adolescents. A single subject ABBA multiple-baseline-across-subjects design was implemented to determine the impact of verbal prompting and concentrated lighting on the play behaviors of visually impaired, emotionally handicapped, nonverbal, profoundly retarded adolescents. Four subjects, two males and two females, were selected from a population of severely handicapped adolescents attending a summer camp. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups containing one male and one female. Play behavior was recorded over a six week period in four phases: baseline, play behavior in the classroom, treatment, and a return to baseline. The subjects' natural play behavior was recorded during baseline. In the classroom, appropriate play behavior with toys was modeled using verbal prompting. The treatment phase took place in a small dark room where appropriate play behaviors were modeled under the beam of the high intensity lamp by the researcher. Phase four was a return to baseline. The subjects did not demonstrate a significant increase in appropriate play behaviors as a result of the treatment. Subject C did exhibit a noticeable, but not consistent, increase in appropriate play behaviors in phase three. The combination of concentrated lighting with verbal prompting was not an effective method for teaching play behaviors to visually impaired, emotionally handicapped, nonverbal, profoundly retarded adolescents.