The term learning styles (LS) describes the notion that individuals have a preferred modality of learning (i.e., vision, audition, or kinesthesis) and that matching instruction to this modality results in optimal learning. During the last decades, LS has received extensive criticism, yet they remain a virtual truism within education. One of the…

From the very first moments of their lives, infants selectively attend to the visible orofacial movements of their social partners and apply their exquisite speech perception skills to the service of lexical learning. Here we explore how early bilingual experience modulates children's ability to use visible speech as they form new lexical…

Categories are fundamental to everyday life and the ability to learn new categories is relevant across the lifespan. Categories are ubiquitous across modalities, supporting complex processes such as object recognition and speech perception. Prior work has proposed that different categories may engage learning systems with unique developmental…

Visual and auditory verbal learning using a selective reminding format was studied in a mixed clinical sample of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 42), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 83), velocardiofacial syndrome (n = 17) and neurotypicals (n = 38) using the Test of Memory and Learning to (1) more thoroughly…

Reading is a basic life skill. Unfortunately, in 2007, only 29% of all eighth graders were able to comprehend at or above a proficient reading comprehension level. Sensory learning styles (kinesthetic, tactile, auditory, and visual) affect the way that students prefer to learn and the areas in which they will have difficulty learning. This study…

Those who focus on the study of visual information continue to search for effective ways to conceptualize that inquiry. However, many visual examples are better categorized as visual/verbal collaboration, complicating analysis. When analysis is based on the assumption that visual and verbal modalities perform in similar ways, important…

This handbook, written for parents, teachers, and others working with children for the purpose of early recognition of defective visual perceptual functioning, presents a training program designed to improve visual perception and suggestions for implementation of this program. To assist the trainer in establishing a beginning level for training,…

Analysis of the data showed no significant correlation between scores from the two modalities, indicating that knowledge of a person's ability to understand speech in one system provides little information about the same person's ability to understand speech in the other. (Author/CL)

A non-verbal 12-year-old boy with low functioning autism was tested on an auditory word-to-picture selection task. Picture foils were chosen to have visual features, semantic features, both, or neither in common with the correct answer. Errors were made more often to semantically than to visually related items. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

To determine the effectiveness in spelling instruction of using only the auditory sensory mode as compared to using both the visual and auditory modes when children check their own tests, students in grades 4 and 6 completed three experimental lessons and three control lessons. For the experimental lessons, an overlay was prepared which enabled…

Results indicated no interaction between modality preference and reading method. The visual method of teaching resulted in higher achievement regardless of modality preference; however, children with an auditory modality preference were generally superior in achievement compared to those with a visual preference. (Author)

The use of visuals in facilitating language learning is investigated by first looking at the effects of both visual and auditory perceptions on the ontogeny of language. This paper then samples the growing body of research and data on the ways in which visuals facilitate first language learning. The use of visuals in teaching/learning is examined…

Examined was the extent of increase in learning efficiency of 72 mentally retarded children, mean age 14 years, when the stronger of two perceptual modalities (auditory or visual) was matched to a unisensory auditory or visual perceptual curriculum. (Author/MC)

This article is a partial summary of a doctoral dissertation completed under the direction of Professor Lloyd M. Dunn at George Peabody College for Teachers. (RD)