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CHAPTER III

DESIGN AND
PROCEDURE
CHAPTER HI

DESIGN AND PROCEDURE

On the basis of the related literature in Chapter II, design and

procedure of the present study has been presented in this chapter. This

chapt sr deals with the description of the design employed, sample selected,

tools jsed, procedure adopted for data collection and statistical techniques

used in the present study.

3.1 Design of the Study

The purpose of the present study was an attempt to assess the

effectiveness of Individualized Training Programme on personal, social,

academic and occupational skills in mentally handicapped children. In this

study, pre-test, post-test design was used.

The present study was carried out in three stages. At the pre-testing

stage, personal, social, academic and occupational skills in mentally

handicapped children of both the experimental and control groups were

assessed with the help of Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming

developed by National Institute for Mentally Handicapped, Secundrabad

(NIMH-FACP). At the experimental treatment stage, Individualized Training

Programme was developed for every mentally handicapped child of

experimental group. This training programme was implemented on the

subjects individually for a period of six months only. At this stage, no

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*

Individualized Training Programme was developed for the mentally

handicapped children of control group. Hence, no special training was given

to the children of control group. At the post-testing stage i.e. after

implementation of Individualized Training Programme for six months, the

mentall/ handicapped children of both experimental and control group were

again evaluated for their personal, socialjacademic and occupational skills by

using Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming (FACP). All these

three stages have also been presented in Table 3.1.1.

Table 3.1.1

Design of the Study

Stages Experimental Group Cont-ol Group

Pre-testing Assessment of personal, social, Assessment of personal,


academic and occupational social, academic and
skills of the subjects occupational skills of the
subjects
Experimental Individualized Training No Individualized Training
Treatment Programme was developed Programme was
and implemented on every developed and
mentally handicapped child of implemented on mentally
experimental group for a period handicapped children of
of six months only. control group.
Post-testing Evaluation of personal, social, Evaluation of personal,
academic and occupational social, academic and
skills of the subjects occupational skills of the
subjects

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For enveloping the Individualized Training Programme for the subjects a
systematic process was being followed in the whole study as presented in
Table 3.1.2

Table 3.1.2

Systematic Process for Developing Individualized Training


Programme for Mentally Handicapped Children

▼ 1 Y
Current Level Goal planning Procedure - Instructional
Performance methods, Learning
materials and Aids

1
T ▼

Setting Annual Setting Short Term


Goals Objectives

I
Implementation of Individualized
Training Programme

I ~
Evaluation of Objectives

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3.2 Variables Involved

In the present study, Individualized Training Programme constituted

the independent variable, whereas personal, social, academic and

occupational skills constituted the dependent variables.

3.3 Sample
The sample of the present study comprised of eighty mentally

handicapped children having I.Q 50 to 70 and with age group 11 to 14 years,

who have been selected from about 400 mentally handicapped children

enrolled in mentally handicapped institutes located at various districts of

Haryana. These eighty mentally handicapped children were assessed as

mild )y the school authorities at the time of admission in the Institutes. Out of

these 80 children, 40 formed the control group and 40 formed the

experimental group. The subjects for both experimental and control group

were selected from separate institutes so that their feelings may not get hurt.

The size of the sample was purposely restricted because development of

Individualized Training Programme for every mentally handicapped child is a

time consuming task.

3.4 Tools Used

In the present study, the following tools have been used for collection of data.

3.4.1 Case History Performa

3.4.2 NIMH - Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming

3.4.3 Development of Individualized Training Programme

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3.4.1 Case History Performs

In the present study, the case history performa was prepared by the

invesigator to collect the general background information about the subjects.

(A copy of the Case History Performa is given at Appendix-1). The contents

of the performa are given below.

1. Identification data: Name, Date of Birth, Age, Sex of the child,

Education and Occupation of the child etc.

2. Demographic data: Parents Name, Education, Occupation and

Income of Parents, Socio-Economic Status, Locality, Language,

Religion etc.

3. Background Information: Joint / Nuclear / Intact family, Number of

siblings, Nature of consultations and treatment, Status of the family

etc.

4. Birth History: Pre-natal, Natal, Neo-natal, Post-natal history,

Immunization History etc.

5. Development Milestones: Development milestones, the Motor


5------- ---------------
development ind Speech and Language of the child developed

normally or delayed.

6. School history: Previous schooling, his/her Attendance, Regularity,

Performance, Reason for Changing the School, Classroom Behaviour

etc.

7. Play: Enjoys play, Play most of the time, Preference to play,

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Behaviour at play, Leisure time activities, Special likes and dislikes

etc.

8. Socialization: Family involvement in Personal needs, Education and

play activities, Interpersonal relationships, Neighbourhood-interaction,

Peer group adjustment, Emotional and behaviour problems etc.

9. Management Problems with the Case: If any problem faced by the

parents to manage with the case was mentioned here.

3.4.2 Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming

(NIMH - FACP)

In the present study, Functional Assessment Checklist for

Programming (FACP) developed by NIMH, Secunderabad was used by the

investigator for educational assessment of the subjects. Objective of

Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming is to provide an

appropriate Individualized Training Programme as per the child’s unique

needs (A copy of Functional Assessment Checklist for programming along

with the guideline for using the checklist is given at Appendix-2).

In Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming, there are seven

checklists for different levels i.e. Pre-Primary, Primary-1, Primary-ll,

Secondary, Pre-Vocational-I, Pre-vocational-ll, & Care group. These levels

are based on the ability and chronological age of mentally handicapped

childr 3n. In the present study, checklist of secondary level (11-14 years) was

used for the assessment of personal, social, academic and occupational

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skills of the subjects.

The format of Secondary Level checklist is so designed that the

programmer can enter the subjects assessment information (entry level) and

the progress periodically (at every quarter) for about three academic years.

Number of the items for assessment covered in each area i.e. personal,

social, academic and occupational are given below in Table 3.4.1

Table 3.4.1

Number of Items for Assessment

Sr. No. Areas No. of the items covered


in each area

1 Personal 16

2 Uocial 18

3 Academic 33

4 Occupation 36

Under each area, space for a minimum of 8 items is left for

programmers to include any activities which may be essential for an

individual student, (The space left does not restrict to only 8 items. It could be

more or less depending on the need and utility of the items for a given

student, if required add those items and enter performance level), in coding,

NA is given to mark items which are not applicable to certain children. Items

marked NA should be deleted while totaling items in that section. Thus items

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for each child can be specifically added or deleted and accordingly number of

items in each domain can be modified.

Each item should be read carefully and from the performance scale

given in the checklist, code is selected which best describes the student’s

present level of performance. Answer should be recorded in the appropriate

place. Yes (+) means the child can perform the item with no help. Occasional

cueing (C) means, the child need to be given clues which require ‘thinking’ by

the child to perform the given task. For example, to wash hands and face

“look at your hands”, “are they clean", “what should you do” and so on. For

the same item, Verbal Prompting (VP) will be, telling the trainee, “rinse

hands”, “pick up soap”, “apply" and so on. Physical Prompting (PP) for this

item s physically helping the child to rinse hands, helping to apply soap and

so on. No (-) would mean, one has to completely do the task for the child.

Not Applicable (NA) refers to the non suitability of the item to the child. No

Exposure (NE) means lack of opportunity to learn.

Scoring

Items marked ‘Yes’ or (+) are counted as a point for quantifying into

scores. Similarly specific items added to the checklist should be included for

calculating. At the end, a table is given to note the progress of individual child

in all the areas periodically after evaluation which may be transferred directly

on to a progress report.

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3.4.3 Development of Individualized Training Programme

The main objective of Individualized Training Programme is to provide

appropriate education and training for every child with mental retardation.

Therefore, development of Individualized Training Programme depends on

the needs and requirements of the mentally handicapped child. In the

present study, Individualized Training Programme was developed by the

investigator for every mentally handicapped child of experimental group

keeping in view his needs and requirements. The following major

components have been taken into consideration while developing

Individualized Training Programme for the subjects. These components have

also been presented in Table 3.4.2.

1. Current Level of Performance in Specified Skills

2. Goal Planning Setting Annual Goals

3. Setting Short Term Objectives

4. Procedure

a) Instructional Methods

b) Learning Materials and Aids

5. Evaluation of Objectives

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Table 3.4.2
Components of Individualized Training Programme

Current Level of Goal Planning - Setting Procedure Evaluation of


Performance in Setting Annual Short Term Objectives
Specified Skills Goals Objectives

I
r r

Instructional Learning Materials


Methods and Aids

i i
Stages of Principles of Steps Teaching
Learning Teaching followed in Strategies
Teaching
- Acquisition - Simple to Concepts - Task analysis
- Fluency complex - Prompting
- Matching
- Maintenance - Known to - Modeling
- Identification
- Seneralization unknown - Shaping
- Naming
- Concrete to - Chaining
Abstract - Reinforcement
- Whole to - Fading
part

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1. Current Level of Performance in Specified Skills

The special educators must have a basis for selecting instructional

goals and objectives. To establish the objectives, it is necessary to acquire

instructional^ relevant information about the subjects which is one of the

most important aspects of individualized training programme, as the entire

programme depends on their correct assessment. Therefore, at the onset,

current level of performance in personal, social, academic and occupational

skills of the subjects were assessed by the investigator with the help of

Functional Assessment Checklist fcr Programming (FACP).

The child performing a specific activity was observed and then it was

noted down exactly what he did without adding any interpretation to it. This

required the skill and efficiency of the investigator. It was necessary that the

investigator develop competency in precisely assessing the current level of

functioning and this comes by practice. A complete assessment of the child

took a week in a natural setting. Some information was gathered from his

parents also. Here again, the precision with which the information was noted

down depends on the efficiency of the investigator to elicit and analyze the

information.

In each of the above areas or wherever applicable, if the level of

functioning was accurately observed and noted, annual goals were set up for

the child.

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2. Goa! planning- Setting Annual Goals

An annual goal represents the achievement anticipated for a child in

an academic year. This is a prediction which depends on the sequences of

instructions to be carried out during the year. To make such a prediction, the

following points were taken into consideration by the investigator.

1. The child’s past achievement

2. Present level of performance

3. The practicality of the goals chosen

4. Priority needs of the child

5. The amount of time to be devoted in training the child for attaining

the particular goal

6. Parental involvement

7. Teacher’s skills in innovation and use of strategies

Keeping these points in mind, the annual goals for the concerned child

were specified by the investigator. After this the short term instructional

objectives were derived from the annual goals.

3. Setting Short-Term Objectives

Short term objectives simply means the breaking down of annual

goals into smaller units so that specific strategies can be worked out to meet

these objectives in a given period of time. In order to train the child to move

from one level of performance to the next level, the Individualized Training

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Programme should have the short term objectives which would sequentially

describe skills between where the child currently is and where he should

move in one year i.e.' rom the current level to the level to reach the annual

goal. Therefore, the short term objective must be sequential with specifically

stated desired behaviour and criteria and role of the teacher and the student

in achieving the objective within prescribed period.

In the present study, the investigator considered the following

components of short term objectives.

* Who is the person to be trained?

* What is the behaviour in question?

* Under what conditions will this behaviour occur?

* What is the level of performance expected?

* How long will it take for the behavioural objectives to be achieved?

The objectives stated for the concerned child were written in

behavioural terms specifying observable and measurable behaviour and

criteria for mastery. This helped the investigator to clarify exactly what was

expected from the student and what he would do. For instance, when asked

(condition), Raju (person attached), will give objects numbering within 5

correctly (behaviour in question), right out of 10 times (level of performance)

by the end of 3 months (dead line) and so on. This is totally observable and

mea5 urable.

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4. Procedure - Instructional Methods, Learning Materials and

Aids

In the present study, the investigator had followed the steps of

procedure i.e. how a task / activity was taught to the subjects. After setting

short-term objectives, the investigator planned the activity to motivate the

subject to involve hirn actively in learning the skills / activity and it was also

necessary to manage the classroom in which the instructions and learning

were carried out. The investigator followed the instructional methods,

learning material and teaching aids in the procedure of developing the

Individualized Training Programme for the subjects,

a) Instructional Methods

Optimum opportunity was provided to the child for a wide range of

learning experiences. The materials used were appropriate to the child and

his environment. As the Individualized Training Programme represents the

basic plan and skill programme to suit the students need, it was explicitly

written.

In the present study, the investigator used the following instructional

methods while developing Individualized Training Programme for the

subjects:

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Stages of Learning

II. Principles of Teaching

III. Steps to be followed in Teaching Concepts

IV. Teaching Strategies

I. Stages of Learning

The following stages of learning were taken into consideration.

Acquisition

It is the stage at which a child is taught to perform a task. The task

should be carefully analysed and imparted. For example, if a child is taught

any skill in this stage, there must be consistency in the teaching pattern. The

same activity should be repeated, the same prompts should be given and the

same environment should be provided. This helps in conditioning the child to

attain the target behaviour.

Fluency

Once the child learns to perform the activity to a higher level of

accuracy, concentration for building fluency is needed. Children work

independently and are provided with plenty of opportunities to practice. To

keep children’s motivation high during this essential stage of learning, regular

feedt ack and rewards for tneir progress should be given. It is important that

child! en learn to perform an activity to a higher level of accuracy, as it makes

all the difference between children learning well or continuing to experience

difficulties.

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Maintenance

In this stage, a student maintains his/her performance with accuracy,

even after task-training procedures are no longer employed. Maintenance is

related to two other concepts, the concept of acquisition, which is an

antecedent to maintenance, and the concept of generalization, which is

subsequent to maintenance. After acquiring a skill, if a student uses the

newly acquired skill without the original task training procedures, he is said to

be showing maintenance skills. The attainment of maintenance of skill,

probably involves the student in further appropriate practice work that can be

identified as over learning trials and distributed practice.

Generalization

Generalization is the demonstration of behaviour in circumstances

other than those in which it was trained. The term is also used to refer to the

occt rrence of behaviour similar to but different from the learned behaviour

under the same circumstances as during training.

II. Principles of Teaching

The following principles of teaching the subjects were also kept in

mind.

Simple to Complex

Always start with a step which the subject is able to do. The success

the child experiences motivate him/her to learn further. Setting of higher

goals in the initial stage of learning may be avoided.

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Known to Unknown

Teaching should be started from what the child already knew. To

know the current level of children (i.e. what content of the curriculum the child

has learnt already) we need to assess the child. Based on the assessment

data, content for teaching may be selected. However, pull the thread from

what he/she already knew and connect to what he/she is expected to learn.

Concrete to Abstract

Concrete objects should be used while teaching any concept to

children. Usually mentally handicapped children, due to the intellectual

impairment, are not able to learn/acquire the vocabulary by themselves from

the environmental interaction. Hence, a number of such activities using

concrete objects for manipulation are needed.

Whole to Part

Another principle is let the child first learn about the object/concept as

a whoie, later the other details.

III. Steps to be followed in Teaching Concepts

Certain steps were being followed while designing the Individualized

Training Programme for the subjects.

Matching

Before the child learns to either identify or name the objects/things, he

learns to match or group objects. To match or group objects, the child may

have an ability to differentiate between the objects or among the objects

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based on the characteristics. The characteristics may be of size, colour,

shape: smell and taste to the objects.

Identification

Once the child learns to match, the next step is Identification. The

same principles and procedures should be followed in this step also. During

identification, if the child shows wrong object, the correct name of that object

was repeated and then shown and say the name of the one which the

teacher had asked.

Naming

The last step is to teach students naming the objects/things. This is a

simple activity where the child is asked to name the object/picture, when

shown and asked ‘what is this’? or ‘How is this called’. Some times, mentally

handicapped children who are non-verbal may not reach this stage. Their

approximate word/gesture can be appreciated and encouraged.

IV. Teaching Strategies

Sequencing the objectives is one of the key factors in successfully

planning for a child. Due to the intellectual impairment, children with mental

retardation have less capacity to learn skills and to maintain and generalize

learned skills. Teachers either general educators or special educators do

employ various strategies while teaching children in classrooms. However,

special strategies and techniques need to be used with children with mental

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retardation and sometimes individualization of strategies and techniques is

required. The following teaching strategies were used in developing

Individualized Training Programme for the subjects.

Task analysis

Mentally handicapped children are unable to learn the task as a

whole, but when presented the task in small steps, they are able to make

better progress. The process of identifying these small steps is known as

task analysis. It is the analysis of a task into simpler steps and arranging

them ir a sequential order. Macarthy (1987) states that task analysis is a

teaching strategy in which the task is broken down into teachable

components and arranged in sequential order. It is a blueprint for

instruction/teaching, through which a student should proceed to achieve the

terminal goal. It describes an end point of what must be learned but not the

methods that will be employed for learning. Therefore, it is not a teaching

methodology.

Prompting

A prompt is a form of temporary assistance used to help a student to

perform a task in a desired manner. When a student is unable to perform the

task, a prompt (temporary assistance) is used to help the student to perform

the task. As the student learns to perform the task, the temporary prompt is

faded (slowly removed) from use.

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#

Modeling

Modeling is a method of teaching by demonstration. It can be used to

teach new behaviours or to correct the performance of an already learnt

behaviour in the child. Modeling prompts are slightly more intrusive than

verbal prompts because the teacher must demonstrate the correct response.

The model responses are not limited to human performances. The model can

be printed through visual illustration.

Shaping

Shaping refers to sequential, systematically reinforcement of

successive approximations of target behaviour until the behaviour is

achieved. Each step in the sequence will be reinforced until established.

Then the criterion for reinforcement will be shifted to the next step. Shaping

procedures may be used to establish new behaviours in disabled students.

Chaining

Chaining refers to the actual process by which each of the responses

is linked to one another to form the behavioural chain. The identification of

the response sequence is done through a task analysis. When backward

chaining is used, the components cf the chain are acquired in reverse order.

The last component is taught first and other components are added, one at a

time. When Forward chaining is used, the teacher starts with the first link in

the chain, trained it to criterion, and then goes on to the next. The student

may be required to f arform all the steps previously mastered each time, or

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each step may be separately trained to criterion and then the links made.

Reinforcement

Reinforcement describes a relationship between two environment

events, behaviour (response) and an event or stimulus (consequence) that

follows the response. The relationship is termed reinforcement only if the

respor se increases or maintains its rate as a result of the consequence.

Reinfcrcement is frequently the critical component of programmatic attempts

to teach new behaviour, to increase existing behaviours that are occurring in

frequently and to maintain behaviours at acceptable levels. Positive

reinforcement is the contingent presentation of a stimulus immediately

following a response that increases the future rate and/or probability of the

response. Negative Reinforcement is the contingent removal of an aversive

stimulus immediately following a response that decreases the future rate

and/or probability of the response.

Fading

Fading can be used to cover a variety of techniques in which gradually

reduction in levels of prompting and also reduction of space cues of various

kinds is done i.e. the gradual decrease in the strength of visual cues (in the

form of diagrams, patterns or dots etc.),

b) Learning Materials and Aids

Learning materials are required for teaching skills to children with

mental retardation. Different types of materials - concrete objects, models,

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pictures/flash cards, audio-visuals, puppets, charts, software packages, play

material, etc. are used by teachers in the classroom during teaching. It has

been r oted in the literature that teaching materials and aids promote multi-

sonsoiy learning. As students use/manipulate the material by themselves, it

create> an interactive environment between the teacher and the students. In

addition, students need a novel experience which sustains their interests.

Therefore, a variety of activities using material should be planned to make

the teaching learning environment more conducive for learning. Instructional

planning is incomplete without selection of appropriate learning aids required

for instruction. Learning aids made learning more meaningful and facilitated

learning of a task / activity. The teaching aids used with one student in

teaching an activity need not to be effective in teaching the same activity to

another students.

3.5 Procedure for Data Collection

In any type1 of research, exercise data are gathered so that

hypotheses formulated at the planning stage may be tested. Collection of

factual information is necessary as data is required for adaptation of a

systematic procedure . As per Whittery (1950) 'Data are the things we think

with. They are the raw material of reflection until by comparison, combination

and evaluation they are stepped up to higher levels of generalization, where

again they serve as basic material for further and higher thinking. It also

required collection of relevant data, adequate in quality and quantity and as

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reliable and valid as possible’.

The present study was conducted in three stages, detail of which is

given below:

Pre-testing Stage

Initially at the pre-testing stage, the investigator collected the general

background information about all the 80 mentally handicapped children who

have been assessed as mild by the school authorities at the time of

admission. The general background information which was collected from the

parents as well as special educator of the mentally handicapped children on

case history performa which helped the investigator in planning

Individualized Training Programme. To maintain ethical norms, permission

and consent was taken from the Heads of the concerned institutes as well as

the parents of the subjects. In this regard, special care had also been taken

so that the feelings of the subjects as well as their parents may not get hurt.

During the pre-testing stage, Functional Assessment Checklist for

programming (FACP), an educational assessment tool was administered to

all the 80 mentally handicapped children who were further equally divided

into two groups i.e. experiment group and control group. The subjects of both

the groups have been taken from the separate institutions intentionally so

that tie subjects belonging to control group may not feel ignored as no

Indivi fualized Training Programme was developed for them. All the subjects

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of both the groups were assessed in all the four areas i.e. personal, social,

ac; demic and occupational skills with the help of Functional Assessment

Checklist for Programming (FACP). The scores thus obtained for each skill of

each subject were recorded in entry level given in Functional Assessment

Checklist for programming (FACP) on the basis of informations given in Case

History Performa and the assessment of the subjects of both the groups in all

the four areas i.e. personal, social, academic and occupational skills.

Experimental Treatment Stage

In the beginning of the training, all the special educators of the

concerned institutions, where the experiment treatment was to be carried out,

were made aware of the objectives and nature of the experiment training to

be conducted. These special educators were also given intensive training

and guidance for implementing the Individualized Training Programme on the

subjects. On the basis of assessment of the current level in personal, social,

academic and occupational skills of the subjects, Individualized Training

Programme for each and every mentally handicapped child of experimental

group was systematically developed in every skills by using all the

components of Individualized Training Programme explained above in the

same chapter. The needs, requirements and priorities were also taken into

consideration while developing systematic Individualized Training

Programme of each subject. After developing systematic Individualized

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Training Programme, it was implemented on each subject of experimental

group for 6 months. (A specimen of Individualized Training Programme

developed for a mentally handicapped child is attached as Appendix 3).

However, no Individualized Training Programme was developed for

the subjects of control group and hence, no special training was given to

them. The medium cf training was Hindi. Training was given to each subject

of experimental group for two hours daily in all the areas i.e. personal, social,

academic and occupational skills, half an hour for one area per day and their

performance was recorded every month. This procedure was continued for

six months. Appropriate and accurate learning materials and aids were

prepared and used for training according to the target behaviour of the

subjects.

Post-testing Stage

After the experimental treatment, performance of each subject of both

the groups was again evaluated and recorded in all the four areas with the

help if Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming. This was done to

check whether the subjects of experimental group have achieved the pre­

determined set of objectives of Individualized Training Programme or not.

The mean gain scores were also recorded for both the experimental and

control groups of the subjects.

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3.6 Statistical Techniques Used

Raw scores carry no weight and meaning by themselves, unless

statistical techniques are employed to test the significance ot the scores. In

order to fulfill the objectives of the study, the following statistical techniques

were employed for data analysis: Mean, Standard Deviation and t-test. As

the hypotheses of the present study were null, two tailed test was employed

for testing the significance of difference between the mean scores of all the

four skills i.e. personal, social, academic and occupational skills.

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