Zone Planning for Accelerating Adaptive Behavior in the Retarded

In an effort to develop an efficient, practical program to serve a heterogeneous population of mentally retarded children excluded from other treatment programs, an innovative teaching environment was developed. A period of individual therapy designed to increase attending behaviors and decrease self destructive, aggressive, or other interfering responses is followed by programing each child into a therapy zone plan of treatment. The zones of special education, self help, language skills, socialization, and motor skills are used. Children move from one prescribed zone to another upon completing daily goals, thereby avoiding the interfering stimuli of other zones and the distracting social stimuli of large groups. The zone approach is discussed as a viable community based model.