Teaching styles of mothers and the match-to-sample performance of their retarded preschool-age- children.

The results indicated that the most frequent forms of maternal behavior were preresponse verbal directions and instructions; however, the best predictor of children's correct performance was postresponse positive feedback.

Abstract

Twenty-one mothers and their preschool-age retarded children were observed during three structured teaching sessions. Each session was rated for various forms of maternal preresponse and postresponse activity as well as performance of the children. The results indicated that the most frequent forms of maternal behavior were preresponse verbal directions and instructions; however, the best predictor of children's correct performance was postresponse positive feedback. Patterns of intercorrelations among maternal measures were generally consistent with those reported by Hess and Shipman (1965). The hypothesis was advanced that maternal postresponse feedback may occur as the result of correct responding which, in turn, is more directly affected by other aspects of teaching style.