Teaching a Parent in the Home to Train Self-Help Skills and Increase Compliance in Her Profoundly Retarded Adult Daughter

The purpose of this study was to teach behavior management skills to the mother of a 24-year old, noninstitutionalized, profoundly retarded, noncompliant, and aggressive woman. Through the use of written instructions and verbal feedback, the mother was trained to apply a positive reinforcement and time-out program. In contrast to previous studies using this approach, this instructional program contained extensive sequenced directions that enabled the mother to systematically apply the procedures in teaching her daughter basic self-help and preacademic skills. These included hair brushing, tooth brushing, face washing, bead stringing, and ring stacking. Results indicated the program was successful in reorienting the mother's behavioral “style” of interaction with her daughter, in increasing the daughter's compliance, and in decreasing her noncompliance and aggressive responses during the self-help and preacademic training.