Children with developmental delays often do not acquire perspective taking skills without training. These skills are imperative to the ability to relate to others socially and the development of appropriate social behavior. They may lack the ability to recognize that another person’s view may differ from their own, or that reality may differ from appearance. This study used deictic relational training to aid in the development of a ‘Theory of Mind’ and the acquisition of perspective taking skills. The PEAK relational training system was used in a special education classroom to train YOU and I relations, as well as YOU and I reversal, to two nine year old students with intellectual disability. Multiple exemplar training was then used to promote the generalization of these perspective taking skills to an in situ deceptive container task. One subject participated in the first two training phases, but was absent for the remainder of the study. The second subject successfully completed all training phases and was then able to correctly respond when asked to report what the perspective of another individual would be.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF