Acquisition of adjectives and adverbs in sentences written by hearing impaired and aphasic children.

Abstract

The effect of an instructional package, which included modeling, reinforcement, and remedial feedback on the rate, accuracy, and topography of sentences composed by four hearing impaired and aphasic children, was examined. In a specially designed classroom, students wrote sentences describing a stimulus picture on acetate sheets placed on the stage of an overhead projector which was built into each student's desk. This arrangement provided the teacher and other students immediate and continuous visual access to each student's sentences. In a multiple baseline design across behaviors, model sentences were projected and token reinforcment and remedial feedback were made contingent upon writing correct sentences containing prenominal adjectives only, then adverbs only, then prenomial adjectives plus adverbs. During baseline all student displayed poor written language skills and seldom wrote sentences containing modifiers. When the instructional package was implemented, all students demonstrated significant increases in response rate, accuracy, and percentage of correct sentences including prenominal adjectives and adverbs.