  We investigate relativistic corrections of order $1/m^{2}$, where $m$ is the
light quark mass, to heavy baryon decays by emitting one pseudoscalar meson in
the quark model. This work is motivated by shortcomings in the previous studies
in the nonrelativistic quark model for decays of the Roper-like states such as
$\Lambda_c(2765)$. We find that the relativistic corrections due to the
internal motion of quarks are essential ingredients in improving their decay
properties such that the decay widths are significantly increased. In addition,
such corrections can explain a phenomenological suppression of the quark
axial-vector coupling constant $g_A^q$ for the $\Sigma_c(2455)$ and
$\Sigma_c(2520)$ decays.
