Antecedent control of oral reading errors and self-corrections by mentally retarded children.

Abstract

Academic behaviors can be enhanced through the manipulation of either consequent or antecedent stimuli. In this study, we evaluated the effects of manipulating two antecedent stimulus events with respect to oral reading errors and self-corrections of four mentally retarded children. Using an alternating treatments design, the effects of previewing the target text and previewing an unrelated text were evaluated against no-previewing. In the first previewing condition, the teacher discussed the target text with the children before they were required to read it orally. The same procedure was used in the other previewing condition but with the provision that an unrelated text was previewed. Oral reading errors decreased and self-corrections increased when the children previewed the target text with their teacher before reading it orally. No changes were observed as a result of implementing the other two procedures, previewing an unrelated text and no-previewing. The results, which were consistent across all four children, showed that reading proficiency can be increased by manipulating antecedent stimulus events prior to oral reading.