Visual attention is preattentively drawn to abrupt onsets of stimuli appearing in a visual array. In this experiment, I examined the speed of attentional capture for persons with and without mental retardation. Participants identified target stimuli that were signaled by a valid location cue (20% of the time), an invalid location cue (60% of the…

Fifteen young adults with intellectual disability and 17 college students learned the locations of 5 landmarks on an island map and then scanned from one landmark to another. In the perception condition, the landmarks were visible; in the imagery condition, they were not. The rate of scanning over distance was similar for perception and imagery…

The authors investigated the effect of action gaming on the spatial distribution of attention. The authors used the flanker compatibility effect to separately assess center and peripheral attentional resources in gamers versus nongamers. Gamers exhibited an enhancement in attentional resources compared with nongamers, not only in the periphery but…

Purpose: To study the role of visual perception of phonemes in visual perception of sentences and words among normal-hearing individuals. Method: Twenty-four normal-hearing adults identified consonants, words, and sentences, spoken by either a human or a synthetic talker. The synthetic talker was programmed with identical parameters within phoneme…

Developed for teachers of educable mentally impaired students at the early elementary level in the Detroit Public Schools, this lesson plan format uses performance objectives based on the annual goals and short-term instructional objectives cited in students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The format is intended to be concise and useful…

Research reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for the investigation of speech, and practical applications of speech research are presented in this status report. The 18 reports deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) cyclic production of vowels in sequences of monosyllabic stress feet; (2) differences between…

Three experiments tested whether qualitative differences in processing of verbal materials result from congenital hearing impairment. Subjects were children with reading levels equivalent to grades 4 to 6. Experiment 1 used repeated measurements with two modes of response and two kinds of cues; experiment 2 used acoustic similarity to produce…

The author gives an account of her early teaching experiences, her awareness that many children did not learn to read, her early investigations of readiness, and her conclusions that difficulty in numbers, copying, or tracing were closely related to reading disability. The importance of visual perception, eye motility, early child development, and…

The following workshop presentations consider learning disabilities: "Educational Goals of the Perceptually Handicapped" by Marianne Frostig, "Remediation of Reading Problems" by Gilbert Schiffman, "Early Identification of Learning Disabilities" by Katrina de Hirsch, and "What Are Some Speech and Hearing…

In response to the research findings of Head Start programs, in particular, and of research in early childhood education, in general, this manual was created by the Kindergarten Study Group of the Cincinnati Public Schools to examine the kindergarten program. The purpose of this manual is to help teachers broaden and extend the learning of the…

Presented for teachers, clinicians, and parents is a manual describing approximately 700 activities to be used for language and cognitive development of culturally-deprived, mentally-retarded, hearing-impaired, and learning-disabled preschool or primary grade children. The communication processes in the manual are said to have been derived from…

This eighth edition of Dr. George Spache's book contains several hundred previously unlisted books for poor readers. The first four chapters deal with book selection practices of children and of adults for children with bibliotherapy and with readability. The remaining ten chapters are extensive annotated listings of children's books, reading…

Research into the psychology of perception can uncover important discoveries for more efficient learning. There must be increased understanding of the processing of input and the pre-processing of output for improved language instruction. Educators must at the present time be extremely wary of basing what they do in the foreign-language classroom…

This study was designed to select and explore a research battery which, when administered at the beginning of the school year, more adequately predicts end of year reading achievement than have previously-used tests and test batteries. The tests used were perceptual-motor and cognitive-intellectual, with the most adequate predictor tests…

Contains 27 specific suggestions for teachers with special needs children mainstreamed in their classroom, particularly children with visual and auditory perceptual difficulties and poor motor skills. Notes that teachers need to make sure that directions, visual and verbal cues, learning materials, and computers are appropriate for children with…