Progressive Time Delay Procedure for Teaching Motor Skills to Adults with Severe Mental Retardation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the progressive time delay (PTD) procedure on teaching gross motor skills to adult males with severe mental retardation. A multiple probe design across three skills and replicated across 4 participants was utilized. Results indicated that a PTD procedure with a 0 to 5 s delay was effective in teaching 4 participants three gross motor skills (tee-ball batting, softball pitching, croquet striking) over a period of 13 weeks. Data on effectiveness were analyzed in terms of the number of instructional sessions (M = 9.58), the number of trials (M = 105.41), the number of min (M = 84.66), and the number of performing errors to criterion (M = 4.08%). A maintenance level (M = 96.87%) was also determined across 4 participants and three skills on the 1st, 4th, 14th, and 24th sessions after terminating the PTD instruction.