Programmed leisure intervention and the interaction patterns of severely mentally retarded adolescents: a pilot study

The results of a survey of 214 severely mentally retarded young people (Cheseldine & Jeffree, 1981) showed that their main leisure activities were passive and solitary. Outside the school environment friendships were limited, in part a reflection of the effect of limited social and leisure skills. A pilot study was carried out to test the hypothesis that once basic leisure skills had been acquired by severely retarded adolescents, their level of activity would increase as would interactions among classmates. The skills were taught using programmed games, and a comparison of pre- and postintervention scores produced a statistically significant difference, p less than .05). We concluded that the intervention did have a positive effect in the direction suggested.