Background & aims: In recent years, there has been an increased interest in analyzing the mathematical performance of students with learning difficulties in order to provide them with teaching methods adapted to their needs. In particular, the importance of studying the type of informal strategy that students use when solving problems has been…

We conducted a comprehensive synthesis of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) research that aimed to facilitate the learning of mathematical word problem solving involving elementary and secondary school students with learning disabilities or difficulties in mathematics. We examined a total of 13 studies under the four instructional categories:…

In schools and classrooms across the country, educators are working to raise the achievement of all students to ever-higher levels. Yet, often missing in discussions about how to raise academic performance is the "way" in which individual students go about learning. One aspect of a student's approach to learning is his or her use of learning…

Using a learning strategies approach, the article outlines specific procedures to promote acquisition and generalization of learning strategies in LD adolescents. First, students are taught a specific strategy in isolation before being asked to apply it to controlled materials and later, to transfer the strategy to regular class content. (Author)

While most efforts in programing for learning disabled adolescents have been directed to the content of instructional offering, the authors identify procedures to promote acquisition and generalization of skills. Exemplified within a learning strategies model, the procedures outlined here stress acquisition of specific strategies through learning…

Children (n=27; ages 9-14) with moderate mental retardation received social skills training using a formal or informal metacognitive strategy approach. Both approaches resulted in acquisition of targeted skills and generalization to another setting. Subjects outperformed chronological age peers and scored as well as mental age peers. (Author/JDD)

Studied transfer of rule knowledge in 7- to 9-year-old normal and disabled readers. Compared performance on trained exemplars and untrained transfer items by means of posttests following rule training. Found that normal readers transferred rule knowledge in reading and music tasks; disabled readers were proficient only on music tasks and showed…

Basic and applied research related to the effects of interspersing trials of maintenance (i.e., review) tasks among trials of acquisition tasks on academic skill development is reviewed. In general, empirical research suggests that interspersing procedures are effective in facilitating acquisition, learning rate, and maintenance. However, some…

This study found that categorization strategy training resulted in increased performance on unidimensional, bidimensional, and tridimensional sorting tasks by 4 males (ages 12-16) with autism. Three subjects also showed improvements on generalization probes and maintenance of performance. (Author/JDD)

Two experiments examined impact of training in false belief understanding on 3-year-olds. Training involved encouragement of reflection on the event of various false belief scenarios, especially the protagonist's thoughts. Results suggested that task-specific strategies for close transfer posttest success were learned, rather than demonstrating a…

Part of a collection of papers commissioned by Foundations, a career development project sponsored by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the paper reviews research on transfer of knowledge and skills from one situation to another. A transfer classification scheme is proposed based on the notion that an individual's knowledge can…

The article reviews what is known about memory strategy development and recommends that teachers of children with learning problems provide intensive training, offer feedback about the strategy, and suggest other situations in which the strategy could be used. (DB)

Two short-term strategy training programs were used to teach learning disabled 9- to 12-year-old students (N=42) to use an organizational strategy for a memory task. A three-rule program stressing the acquisition of specific strategy content showed a greater transfer of learning than a six-rule program teaching both specific strategy content and…

This review evaluates research on the Strategies Intervention Model (SIM) developed at the Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities, University of Kansas. The model is designed to teach learning-disabled and low-achieving adolescents strategies which will enable them to learn and perform independently, show appropriate social and personal…

This article presents a strategy to teach young children with developmental delays how to interact cooperatively and effectively on their own initiative. Based on metacognitive research, this social skills training program, called social metacognitive strategy training, is designed to help students generalize social skills from one activity to…