Training developmentally handicapped persons as supervisors in sheltered workshops

Developmentally handicapped persons were taught to apply a behavioral supervisory strategy to maintain work rates of other developmentally handicapped clients in a sheltered workshop. In two experiments, each with two subjects, training procedures were examined in a multiple baseline across supervisory components within subjects. Results clearly demonstrated that the subjects learned to apply the supervisory components as a function of the training procedures. The subjects were approximately as effective as were regular staff for maintaining production rates of the workshop clients. Potential benefits of the supervisory training for the subjects as well as for the staff were discussed. The results suggest that the teaching of developmentally handicapped persons to perform more complex supervisory activities in sheltered work settings deserves greater attention than it has received in the past.