Receptive training of adjectival inflections in mental retardates.

Sanders et al. (1971) taught three people with intellectual disability to understand adjective endings. They trained receptive use of -er and -est through matching tasks. Unreinforced probe trials checked if the skill spread to new words.

All three learners could pick the correct picture for 'bigger' or 'biggest' after training. The skill carried over to words they had never seen before. Generalized receptive use of the suffixes held steady.

Sailor (1971) ran a near-twin study the same year. Both used single-case designs with people with ID and got positive generalization. W taught spoken plural endings; M taught receptive adjective endings. The pair shows the method works across grammar targets.

Hansen et al. (1989) later showed that keeping both sample and comparison parts in view is key for conditional discrimination with adults. Their finding extends M’s work by telling us how to arrange the displays when learners struggle.

Clarke et al. (1998) pushed the idea further. They built five-member letter-sound classes that transferred to reading tasks in teens with moderate ID. M opened the door for using equivalence logic with language; D walked through it with bigger classes.

You can teach grammar endings without mass direct instruction. Use receptive match-to-sample, then probe with new words to see if the rule stuck. If the client fails, add blocked-trial fading like J et al. to keep both ends of the choice in play. The 1971 recipe still saves hours of drill today.