Promoting Recreation Skills in Severely Retarded Children

Abstract

The importance of physical education and recreation activities for retarded children has been stressed from many quarters. Accordingly, in a summer day camp for retarded children, behavior modification procedures were examined as a means to increase cliii­dren’s participation iii recreational activities and to demonstrate that supervised staff members can serve as experimenters in camp setting as they modify behaviors that are of concern. Four studies were conducted m which camp personnel acted as primary ex­perimenters; the subjects of these studies ranged from single subjects to entire classroom groups. In the first study, on-task classroom behavior was examined for two boys who displayed higli rates of distractible behavior (e.g., shouting, throwing materials, runnmg, etc.). A token reinforcement procedure was sequentially applied to three different activity classrooms ni a multiple-baseline design. Similar contingencies were arranged for an entire class of children in a second study. Substantial increases iii the classroom participation of ah children were functionally related to the mtroduction of the ex­perimental contingencies. In a third study, the effects of adult social reinforcement on the appropriate play with basketballs and roller skates of a young Down’s Syndrome boy were assessed using a reversal design. Observations made during free play showed increases of 75% iii appropriate play during periods of adult social reinforcement. In the fourth study, extinctjon was employed using a multiple basehine design to reduce disruptive physical contact of a physically handicapped girl. Records kept on the daily number of disruptive physical contacts directed toward two staff members showed that durmg ex­tinction phases, disruptive behavior was nearly ehiminated. Taken together, these four studies demonstrated that (1) day camps can be significant teaching settings for young handicapped children, (2) childrens’ participation in healthy, physical activities can be increased by employing behavior modification procedures, (3) indigenous camp personnel with proper trainmg and supervision can carry out behavior modification techniques and demonstrate proyects with’out disrupting the normal camp routine and as a result have more time to supervise children’s activities, and (4) conditions need to be arranged to msure children’s participation if benefits are to accrue from recreation asid physical education activities.