Despite a considerable amount of work in recent years concerned with language and the mentally handicapped (Schieflebusch et al, 1967; Mittler, 1974), there is relativeIy little information concerning verbal communication between instructors and handicapped persons, yet verbal communication is one of the primary media used to bring about change in the training of the handicapped. In every aspect of a training programme, whether in learning a vocational or social skill, it is necessary for the participants to exchange ideas with staff. Interviews concerning problems associated with work, aspects of home living and leisure time, all involve tralnee and trainer. The work of Bernstein (1967) on the use of different language codes, suggcsts th31 c ~ ~ i ~ ~ i i u ~ i i ; x i i n sittl.~~ions are lilrely to run into problems if the plr~icipants usc dlfierenr codes. It seems possible that this communication problcm nlay be increased when handicapped persons are involved since they are generally isolated from the main stream of education and training, and therefore are likely to s a e r further restriction of their linguistic skills. Instructors, teachers, and others working with the handicapped comment on the verbal difficulties experienced by their students, though it is well recognised that most of the mentally handicapped understand much more language (decoding) than t11c.y can produce (encoding) (Mittlcr, 1373). However, it seems fair to conclude that the handicapped appear to misunderstand and confuse verbal information. Ley and Spelman (1965) carried out a study involving interviews with physically ill persons of normal ability. The authors measured the amount of information retained by patients after they had consulted medical practitioners, and found that their subjects recalled only 62.8% of all that was said. They suggested that a patient could not carry through instructions for care of his ailments because he was unable to remember all the necessary information. Ley (1971) found that by using principles of efficient learning, such as organising, repeating and reducing information, retention could be increased. The language and other learning difficulties of the mentally handicapped perhaps suggest that the problems faced by them in interview situations are more extreme and retention problems even greater than those described by Ley and Spelman. The present study was concerned with examining the extent to which a group of mentally handicapped young adults undergoing vocational training were able to retain information received during routine interviews.