Influence of Peer Tutors upon Academic Learning Time–Physical Education of Mentally Handicapped Students

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of peer tutors on the academic learning time (ALT) of moderately/severely mentally handicapped students in adapted physical education. A multiple baseline-across-students and withdrawal design was used to analyze the effects of untrained and trained tutors on the ALT–PE of the students. Motor appropriate behavior was documented with the ALT–PE observation system (Siedentop, Tousignant, & Parker, 1982). Data were analyzed by visual inspection. It was concluded that the presence of peer tutors appeared to have a positive effect on the ALT–PE of mentally handicapped students. No differences were evident between untrained and trained tutors with respect to ALT–PE.