Teaching computer-based spelling to individuals with developmental and hearing disabilities: transfer of stimulus control to writing tasks.
Computer-based instruction may yield widely useful handwritten spelling. Illustrative cases involved individuals with mental retardation and hearing impairments. The participant in Study 1 matched computer pictures and printed words to one another but did not spell the words to pictures. Spelling was then taught using a computerized procedure. In general, increases in the accuracy of computer spelling were accompanied by improvements in written spelling to pictures. Study 2 extended these results with a 2nd participant. After initial training, spelling improved in the context of a retrieval task in which the participant (a) wrote a list of the names of objects displayed on a table, (b) selected the objects from a shelf, and (c) returned the objects to the table. Nearly perfect accuracy scores declined on some retrieval trials conducted without a list, suggesting that the list may have served a mediating function during retrieval. Transfer of stimulus control of computer-based teaching to the retrieval task may have been attributable to the existence of stimulus classes involving pictures, objects, and printed words.
Stromer
R
R
Behavioral Sciences Division, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254, USA. RStromer@Shriver.org
Mackay
H A
HA
Howell
S R
SR
McVay
A A
AA
Flusser
D
D
D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D003145:Communication Methods, Total; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008838:Microcomputers; D008875:Middle Aged; D012813:Sign Language; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014956:Writing