Training programs designed to remediate eating deficits of higher level patients have involved some combination of verbal instructions, manual guidance, modeling, and reinforcement. Training methods which incorporate relaxation and imagery to facilitate behavior change have received little attention with this population. The current study was designed to explore the use of relaxation and suggestions as a training strategy to modify the shoveling behavior of moderately and mildly retarded institutionalized clients. Three treatment methods, relaxation-suggestion with reinforcement, modeling-instruction with reinforcement, and relaxation-suggestion alone, were compared. A greater reduction in shoveling behavior was hypothesized for the modeling-instruction with reinforcement group than for either of the relaxation-suggestion groups, and a greater reduction in shoveling behavior was hypothesized for the relaxation suggestion with reinforcement group than for the relaxation-suggestion alone group.