Informed instruction that adjusts content, materials, or intensity to student needs is critical for students with learning disabilities. Informed literacy instruction requires teachers to have thorough knowledge of literacy-related content, which includes phonemes, syllables, and morphemes. The current study investigated whether teachers who…

This article presents two approaches to determining the goals and methods of instruction in spelling. One approach is to administer a standardized test, document the student's grade- level performance, present lists of words at that grade level to the student, and then test his or her performance each week. The other approach is prescriptive and…

The study examined 40 learning disabled fourth graders' spelling performance in response to strategy training and variations in study conditions. Students who were taught the five-step study strategy recalled correct spelling of more words than controls. However, spelling performance of students who received strategy training was not…

Directed study, in which all children were required to engage in the same number of repetitive spellings of word lists, had significant effects on spelling performance of learning disabled children without short-term memory deficits, but not Ss with short-term memory problems. Findings suggest that some LD children may need different kinds of…

Two studies compared the effectiveness of alphabet principle training only versus combined alphabet principle and syllable awareness training with at-risk spellers (grades 2 and 3). Differing results suggest use of a two-tier early intervention model in which first the alphabet principle is taught and applied and then the following year children…

Examination of 27 studies on spelling instruction for students with learning disabilities suggests several activities that may enhance learning, such as limiting number of new words introduced, facilitating student-directed and peer-assisted instruction, providing immediate error correction, and including instruction in morphemic analysis. Future…

Elementary children with only spelling (n=24) or handwriting and spelling disabilities (n=24) were randomly assigned to a pencil- or computer-response mode and taught 48 words of varying orders of sound-spelling predictabilities. The computer keyboard offered no overall superiority to the pencil. Children with both disabilities spelled less well.…

A constant time delay procedure was used to improve spelling of an 11-year-old learning disabled child. The near errorless instructional method provided a time delay between a controlling stimulus (prompt) and a new stimulus (target response). The five-second constant delay procedure resulted in acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of 15…

Development of effective cognitive-behavioral training approaches for students with learning handicaps in academic domains, such as spelling, requires greater concern for teachers' knowledge of the academic domain, as well as their pedagogical expertise in finely and precisely adjusting their instructional use of language to communicate that…

Seventeen fourth and fifth graders with severe writing disabilities received a weekly one-hour individual tutorial which focused equally on transcription (handwriting and spelling) and composition skills. Students showed reliable improvement in composition and handwriting automaticity but not in spelling. Suggestions for teaching phonological…

The article presents the rationale behind development by the Council for Learning Disabilities of a set of competencies for teachers of learning disabled children. Competencies cover the areas of oral language, reading, written expression, spelling, mathematics, cognition, behavioral management, counseling/consulting, career/vocational education,…