Verbal Mediation as an Instructional Technique With Young Trainable Mentally Retarded Children

Abstract

In verbally mediated motor training (VMMT), the subject utters the name of the action while performing a response. This procedure was contrasted to one condition in which subjects were trained to perform the response silently (MT) and to an in-class control condition with 4 to 10-year-old trainable mentally retarded (TMR) children. Both training treatments were equally facilitative in teaching gross motor movements, but VMMT subjects verbally mediated their responses spontaneously and named the trained action when performed by the examiner in a posttest situation significantly more than MT subjects.