Results indicate that kindergarten and first-grade pupils who were trained in visual perception scored no higher than their controls on the academic or readiness tests. Therefore, the use of this program as a supplement to traditional readiness activities does not appear to be warranted. (Author)

Investigated was whether reading achievement could be increased by exposure to logical and perceptual tasks as found in science process activities. (MP)

Critiqued are five reviews of research puporting to examine the effectiveness of perceptual training in the improvement of reading. (DB)

This program, included in "Effective Reading Programs...," serves 1,500-2,000 kindergarten and first-grade children in three districts. The program is designed to train school personnel to identify perceptual deficits in areas specifically undergirding the reading process in kindergarten or first-grade children and to implement needed…

Reading instruction should be modified to make it compatible with students' perceptual skills. Assessing the adequacy of a student's perception is pertinent to planning his reading instructional program--not because the teacher can then teach to a preferred modality but, rather, because it can help the teacher determine whether the student has…

Many authors report data showing a high relationship between visual perception and early reading. This study dealt with the prediction of later reading from early Frostig test scores and the determination of existing relationships between Frostig treatment and reading skills two years later. Two hundred and seventy-four beginning first graders in…

Results of an investigation of the effects of perceptual training upon selected measures of reading achievement are reported. Subjects were 87 second-grade children of average intelligence who had evidenced reading difficulties as well as perceptual deficits. They were chosen from the Glen Cove, New York, school district on the basis of their…

Points out that concerned, innovative teachers can succeed in teaching disadvantaged students to read when programs and hardware fail. Filmstrip production provides one means of obtaining relevant material which will lead students toward interest in reading and writing activities. (RW)

Having rejected the assumption that children meeting the criteria of "unimpaired" possess the basic perceptual skills needed to organize raw data into meaningful symbolic units, and the notion that children less adept in these skills can be categorized as "learning disabled" or "culturally disadvantaged," the Learning Research and Development…

This study is concerned with an examination of tendencies among individuals or groups to vary in their selection of certain types of responses when the same choice is presented in some other form, the tendencies being termed "response sets." Positional response sets (PRS), to which multiple-choice type items are prone, have reportedly…

This is an elaboration of a 1967 to 1968 study that attempted to control various intervening variables thought to affect the outcomes of secondary reading improvement programs. Examined were the effects of the variables of race, sex, secondary school attended, college board scores, chronological age, family head's educational level, choice of…

An evaluation of research in the area of perceptual training suggests procedures for teachers to follow until more definitive information is obtained. First, educators should build their programs on broadly-based but accurate classifications of perceptual skills. They should also be aware of the theoretical assumptions which influence perceptual…

The purpose of this research was to determine whether student achievement in reading and spelling could be improved by using a typewriting instructional technique rather than a handwriting technique. The subjects were 23 second, third, and fourth grade students who scored significantly below the norms on segments of the Illinois Test of…

Studies of the etiological factors in reading disability and approaches, generally visual-perceptual, to the problem are presented. Krippner's study presents 15 causes of reading disability and reveals poor visual-perceptual skills as the most common cause. The Olson-Mitchell-Westberg study attempts to determine the effects of visual training upon…

A training program was devised to develop automaticity of one subcomponent of reading--locating and disembedding multiletter units within words. The system involved the use of a training task that was implemented in a microcomputer-based game that required students to detect whether a target unit was presented within words that were shown in rapid…