THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO TRAINING METHODS TO FOCUS ATTENTION ON THE CRITICAL FEATURES OF LETTER-LIKE FORMS WAS STUDIED. SUBJECTS WERE 32 KINDERGARTEN PUPILS. SIX NONSYMETRICAL, STANDARD LETTER-LIKE FORMS AND FOUR TRANSFORMATIONS, CONSISTING OF RIGHT-LEFT AND UP-DOWN REVERSALS, 180 DEGREES AND 90 DEGREES ROTATION, WERE USED AS STIMULI TO LEARNING.…

AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH ON VISUAL DISCRIMINATION SHOWS A TREND FROM THE WHOLE-WORD VIEW TO A COMBINATION OF LETTER-DISCRIMINATION AND THE WHOLE-WORD METHOD. TEN STUDIES CITED IN THIS ARTICLE ATTEMPTED TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS--(1) WOULD NONVERBAL STIMULI FACILITATE READING PERFORMANCE, (2) DO CHILDREN FOCUS ON THE SHAPE OF THE WORD OR…

Demonstrates that discrimination training with verbal materials (words and letters) is generally more helpful than training with non-verbal forms. (RB)

Discusses how the learning of reading skills can be combined with the teaching of musical skills. (MM)

Examined the relationship between cognitive style and reading readiness in 104 kindergarteners before and after a visual discrimination treatment designed to modify conceptual impulsivity. Correlations were also obtained between errors and latencies on the Matching Familiar Figures Test and performance on the Metropolitan Readiness Test. No…

Examines four specific areas of reading readiness--visual discrimination, visual memory, auditory discrimination, and auditory comprehension--and reviews teaching strategies in each of the four areas. (FL)

Suggests methods and materials for improving the perception abilities of young children. (NH)

The purpose of this investigation was to study the effect of controlling the letters used in words both for a training program designed to improve visual discrimination and for a word recognition task. The experiment was designed to investigate the influence of simultaneous and successive discrimination learning with stimuli which varied in…

Describes a study of 16 kindergarten children--eight good prereaders and eight poor prereaders--designed to determine if there were relations between reading skill and the processing of distinctive features of patterns. Concludes that both pattern classification and feature processing appear to be involved in early reading skills. (TJ)

Musical experiences can be used to sharpen young children's auditory, visual and oral skills.

Examines the effectiveness of Frostig-Horne and Kephart-Getman techniques and materials in developing the perceptual and motor skills of young children. (TO)

Reviews selected instructional procedures in the four reading readiness skills that can be taught and learned: auditory discrimination, auditory comprehension, visual discrimination, and visual memory. Stresses that readiness skills are prerequisite to reading skills. (RS)

In order to make letter shape recognition an integral part of perception training, the use of the line in its two basic shapes is proposed. Letter shapes may seem exceedingly complex linear shapes to young minds. Thus instead of instruction in configuration, instruction involving transformational activities to manipulate and create the…

A laboratory and a classroom study were conducted to determine if verbal association learning would be facilitated by visual discrimination training. Kindergarten children who could not recognize the letters used were the subjects for both studies. In the laboratory study, 90 subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental group (E) which got…