A two-phased training study attempted (1) to accelerate the rate at which a total of 8 severely and profoundly retarded children (mean age 57 months) developed the Piagetian concept of object permanence and (2) to demonstrate generalization of the higher performance on object permanence scale to other scales of sensorimotor intelligence and to the learning of expressive language. The first phase focused on training the Ss in the area of object permanence. In the second phase the Ss (4 from phase 1, 2 control and 2 experimental, and 2 newly selected Ss matched for age and etiology) received language training. Among results were that all of the phase 1 Ss achieved criterion for the hiqhest item on the scale used; and that, in phase 2, Ss who had achieved object permanence (whether with or without traininq) progressed far more than Ss who had not mastered this concept. (PHR)