According to a language-integrated view of spelling development, learning to spell involves the same language-learning skills across alphabetic systems. A prediction based on this view is that the same spelling training should be equally effective for learning to spell in a shallow (Italian, native language) or an opaque (English, additional…

Fluent word reading is hypothesized to facilitate reading comprehension by improving automatic word reading, thus releasing a reader's cognitive resources to focus on meaning. Many students with learning disabilities (LD) struggle to develop reading fluency, which affects reading comprehension. This synthesis extends Chard, Vaughn, and Tyler's…

A primary hypothesized outcome of consultee-centered consultation, including instructional consultation (IC), is that consultees will become more skilled. However, these claims have not been well researched. Data from 274 teachers implementing IC were analyzed to investigate perceptions of satisfaction and skill development. Results indicated that…

Classification of 140 children with developmental reading disabilities found 54 percent demonstrated deficits in both phonological awareness and visual naming speed and these children were more globally impaired than children with a single deficit. Following 35 hours of word identification training, sizable gains and significant generalization of…

A vocabulary training program, using parents as sole instructors, led to significant and lasting improvements in word knowledge and lexical access speed for 13 adolescents with dyslexia. Furthermore, when the trained words matched the current vocabulary of the child, the improvement generalized to untrained words. (Author)

A case study of a 10-year-old boy with poor performance in language and math investigated whether increasing on task behavior in one subject area will increase on task behavior in another area. Results indicated that increasing on task behavior in one curriculum area does not necessarily generalize to another area. (PHR)

Two studies required 11 learning disabled (LD) elementary students to spell unknown words using standard written dictation and imitation-modeling. When the LD students were permitted sufficient, though individually variable, exposure to minimal correction procedures, they spontaneously generalized what had been learned from one spelling list to…

This study demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of a constant time delay procedure (four seconds) to teach five elementary students with learning disabilities multiplication facts. Learning generalized to a paper-and-pencil task, to a different presentation orientation, and to reverse facts. (DB)

Twenty grade 5 and 6 students with reading disabilities and 40 average readers were taught to use a self-questioning strategy for the identification of main ideas under either a standard instruction or a generalization induction condition. Results indicated the self-instructional training was equally effective under both conditions and performance…

This study examined the contributions of instruction in goal setting and self-instruction on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of a reading comprehension strategy by 47 students (grades 4-6) with learning disabilities. Results indicate that instruction in goal setting and self-instruction did not augment the comprehension…

This study of 52 learning-disabled children, aged 8-13, found that direct feedback and practice improved metaphor interpretation. The approach was highly successful in teaching students to generalize concrete concepts to abstract ones. Further descriptive analyses indicated that grade and reading levels of subjects correlated with metaphor…

This study, with three mildly handicapped nine-year olds, investigated the effects on capitalization skills of a peer teaching procedure combined with student letter-writing activities. Findings indicated acquisition of the skills, with mixed results for generalization. Two of the 3 mildly handicapped peer teachers (ages 10-11) also improved their…

Blending and spelling training were compared to determine which intervention would improve the decoding skills of two first-grade boys with learning disabilities. Although neither intervention proved superior, the children met the learning criterion with both interventions and demonstrated both maintenance and generalization of their skills. (DB)

A study of three males (grades 7-8) with learning disabilities investigated the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral self-management training package on the consistent use of specific classroom survival skills. Results demonstrated more consistent use of targeted classroom survival skills by all students in both learning support and mainstream…

This study, involving 9 students (ages 8-11) with learning disabilities, found that 1 session of self-instruction training was not sufficiently powerful for students to learn a strategy for solving arithmetic problems, but a second session and access to tape-recorded cues resulted in improved performance. Effects did not generalize to student…