Establishment of independent responding to a fire alarm in a blind, profoundly retarded adult.

A forward chaining conditioning procedure was used to establish an independent, appropriate response to a fire alarm in a blind, profoundly retarded adult male. The appropriate response, as defined by New York State regulations, is to exit from the residence or move to a fire-safe area within 21/2 min with minimal verbal or physical prompts. Independent responding was established within a total training time of 21/2 hr. Total time to exit was 28.5 sec.