title: Retention of symbolic communications skills by severely mentally retarded persons.
abstract: The nonspeech symbol vocabularies of five severely mentally retarded persons were assessed 18 months after the completion of a longitudinal computer-keyboard symbol acquisition study. These individuals retained a mean of 83% of their comprehension vocabularies and 70% of their production vocabularies without systematic maintenance teaching on the learned symbols. Interviews with special-education and living unit staff members corroborated this result and described the ways in which the subjects used their conversation boards in their everyday environment.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Romski
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Sevcik
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Rumbaugh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D013561:Symbolism