Acquisition of expressive signing: comparison of reinforcement strategies

Abstract

Previous research in expressive sign teaching has sometimes used a labeling procedure in which the reinforcers for signing are unrelated to visual referents for the signs taught. This nonspecific reinforcement strategy can be contrasted with a requesting procedure in which signing is reinforced specifically (i.e., the reinforcers for signing are the visual referents of the signs produced). This study used an alternating treatments design to make a direct comparison between the effect of the two reinforcement strategies on the acquisition of expressive signing in children with severe mental retardation. The Request treatment produced faster acquisition of expressive signing than the Label treatment for three of the subjects, but the effect was strongest in the two least able children. Although post-tests appeared to show that children could use the signs functionally regardless of the method initially used to teach them, alternative explanations of this apparent transfer of function, and their implications...