Williams, Timothy Hamish2021-11-162021-11-161978https://hdl.handle.net/10092/102975http://dx.doi.org/10.26021/12109In the literature relating to correcting speech deficiencies there are divergent views held on the value of training the response of imitation before attempting to train verbal imitation. Six young retarded children with limited verbal ability were exposed to either non-verbal imitation training or to a task involving similar exposure to the experimental conditions but not involving imitation. All subjects were then exposed to a verbal imitation procedure. The subjects who had previously been exposed to imitation did not progress more rapidly on the verbal imitation task as might have been predicted from some of the literature. This suggests that there is no value in training non-verbal imitation before moving into basic speech training using imitation.enAll Rights ReservedImitationChildren with mental disabilities--LanguageTheses / Dissertations