Cues-pause-point training and simultaneous communication to teach the use of signed labeling repertoires

We taught two mentally retarded students who communicated by signing to answer questions with signed labels and evaluated the generalized effects of this training on their correct responding to untrained questions. The students received cues-pause-point training on one question set followed by generalization assessments on a different set in other settings. Periodic probes were conducted on two novel question sets in other settings to determine further the strength and spread of any generalization effects. A multiple baseline across-subjects design revealed that the students' incorrect signing was replaced with correct responding in the training and all generalization sets. These results replicate and extend previous research and suggest that cues-pause-point procedures can be useful in teaching students to use their manual signing repertoires.