Teaching key use to persons with severe disabilities in congregate living settings

Key use remains overlooked for increasing independent material use by persons with severe mental retardation. In Experiment 1, a procedure to train key locating was evaluated in a multiple-probe withdrawal design across three groups of participants. Most participants located their keys when reinforced for doing so; however, key locating decreased when the reinforcement procedure was withdrawn. In Experiment 2, a multiple probe design across four participant groups was used to evaluate a training procedure to teach key use. Twenty of 25 participants used a key to open and lock their personal lockers as a result of training. However, only 36% of the participants were able to use their keys without prompts from experimenters.