This study examined the effectiveness of a token economy program in improving the self-help skills of the moderately and severely retarded children. The subjects were 31 mentally retarded children (26 moderately MR and 5 severely MR) attending special classes at the Taipei Municipal Yang-Ming Rehabilitation Center. Training target behaviors were introduced according to requirement of a multiple baseline design across behaviors. Target behaviors included appropriate self-feeding (i.e., to use spoon, chopsticks, and glass approiately), self-dressing (i.e., grooming, dressing, and undressing), and personal hygiene behaviors (i.e., toothbrushing, hand and face washing). Each target behavior was broken down, or task analyzed into 9 to 14 component steps. Training was implemented with individualized instruction and consisted of verbal instructions, physical prompt, manual guidance, and token reinforcement. During the follow up phase, the focus was on the maintenance and generalization effect of the subjects. Results indicated abrupt and substantial increases in performance of most target behabiors, and also generalized to the naturalistic setting, maintained over an extended period of time. The findings provided strong evidance for the efficacy of a self-help skill training program combined with token economy to the retarded children.