The effectiveness of antecendent prompt and testing procedure on improving daily life skills of children with mental retardation

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of antecedent prompt and testing procedure on improving daily life skills, such as making tea and serving it, mopping the floor, of children with mental retardation. Additionally, generalization and maintenance effects of the improved skills to different contexts, people and materials after teaching were examined in the study.Multiple probe design across skills which was one at the single subject designs was used as the research design.The sample of the study included 3 mentally retarded children who were attending to a school, ?Yediveren Özel Eğitim ve Rehabilitasyon Kursu? (Yediveren, Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation). Only one of those students who committed to participate in the study was involved in treatment. Other students of those three were held in the list in case of possible problem. A student who hasn?t been affected by retardation participated in the pilot study, too.As data collection tools, a teacher and family interview from, a skill checklist, criterion- referenced tests and data record sheets to use antecedent prompt and testing procedure, procedural reliability forms, reinforcement forms toward children and social validity forms toward family and teacher were developed and used in the study. Antecedent prompt and testing procedure instruction plans were prepared and applied by the investigator.Visual graphical analysis method was used in the analysis of the data.Based on the results of this study, it was suggested that antecedent prompt and testing procedure instruction was effective on improving daily life skills, such as making tea and serving it, mopping the floor, of children with mental retardation.It was also seen that skills such as making tea and serving it, mopping the floor which were gained by antecedent prompt and testing instructions were maintained 7,14 and 21 days even after the teaching and those skills were generalized to different contexts, tools and individuals.