Initiating Functional Vocabulary Learning for Mental Retardation Students with Educational Technology Approach

Abstract

This study developed functional vocabulary learning system for mental retardation students to assist three moderate ones enrolled in special education classes of vocational schools, and discusses the learning effect of the within and extra fading strategies. And the alternative treatment design of the single subject experiment design was adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning system. The teaching strategy adopted photos of physical goods as cues combined with the fading strategy within a stimulus-control process. After experiment, this study has the preliminary result: Stimulus fading strategies can assist functional vocabulary learning in moderate mental retardation students enrolled in special education classes of vocational schools; learning achievement with the extra fading strategy exceeded that with the within fading strategy.