Dining arrangements and behavior of severely mentally retarded adults

The behavior of 12 severely and profoundly mentally retarded men and women living in a 64-bed community residence was studied during large group (congregate) and small group dining arrangements. Four adaptive and four maladaptive mealtime behaviors were recorded using a coded partial interval time sampling procedure, employing a with-subject reversal design. Adaptive dining behaviors increased (15.9% to 93.6%) and maladaptive behaviors associated with meals decreased (28.8% to 8.5%) during small group dining periods. The relation of client behavior to variables in addition to group size is discussed.