This article was adapted from the E. L. Thorndike Address that I delivered at the August, 2019 meeting of the American Psychological Association in Chicago. I trace my career as an educational psychologist in the context of the enormous changes, both theoretical and societal, that occurred during my years as an active researcher. Reading, the…

This teaching tip focuses on using hand-clapping to teach content area material across the curriculum. We begin with a brief history of hand-clap songs, followed by a rationale for using them in content area literacy. Then, we describe the instructional lesson, share samples that resulted, and discuss lesson extensions. Our goal is to have…

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of the Frostig Developmental Program of Visual Perception in effecting gains in reading readiness scores and perceptual motor ability with kindergarten students and reading achievement scores and perceptual motor ability with grade one students. High, middle and low groups in both…

Recent models of beginning reading processes are described, and the author offers the following summarization: (1) Models at present focus on cognitive aspects of reading; little attempt has been made to incorporate affective aspects into the models. (2) Several different theoretical positions within psychology representing a wide variety of…

The purpose of this "Reading Aid" is to help teachers and other school personnel responsible for selecting readiness programs to evaluate those programs they are considering for selection. The programs reviewed here represent a cross-section of the many language and perceptual readiness programs available. The assumption underlying each of these…

This thesis reviews those articles that have been published since the early 1960s in the area of perceptual-motor and sensory-motor programs which affect reading readiness in beginning readers at the kindergarten-first grade level. The contents include: "Reading: A Definition," which looks at some of the definitions proffered by authors in the…

Past studies in child development have clearly established that motor development is the basis for later, higher-order developmental processes. The motor developmental approach to learning focuses on the acquisition of skills and concepts in various academic subjects through motor activities. It is based partly on the theory that children, being…

The purpose of this research study was to compare two kinds of perceptual training for kindergarteners. A control group was grouped for instruction in visual or auditory perception. The children whose weaker modality was auditory received an "Open Court" program which stressed the acquisition of phonetic skills. The Frostig-Horne program was given…

A research proposal to study the effect of multisensory teaching methods in first-grade reading is presented. The focus is on sex differences in learning and in multisensory approaches to teaching. The project will involve 10 experimental and 10 control first-grade classes in several Southern California schools. Both groups will be given IQ,…

A perceptual motor approach to learning phonics is presented in this teaching guide which includes a screening test and 50 learning games encompassing a wide array of phonics skills. Directionality, gross-motor skills, sensory-motor skills, and auditory and visual perceptual skills may be introduced to the children and taught during the games…

This report is one of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications. Drawn from the period of January 1 to March 31, 1980, the 14 manuscripts cover the following topics: (1) acoustics in human communication; (2) motor-sensory feedback formulations;…