Background: Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with growth deficits and neurodevelopmental impairment including foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Difficulties with oral and written communication skills are common among children with PAE; however, less is known about how communication skills of adolescents who have PAE compare…

Purpose: The current meta-analysis provides a quantitative overview of published and unpublished studies on statistical learning in the auditory verbal domain in people with and without specific language impairment (SLI). The database used for the meta-analysis is accessible online and open to updates (Community-Augmented Meta-Analysis), which…

An intervening variable between perceptual deficits and academic learning--verbal mediation processes--is explored. Research reviewed, primarily that of A. Luria, leads to the conclusion that verbal mediational processes can compensate for perceptual learning process deficits. Relevant teaching applications are discussed. (Author)

Anderson, Spiro, and Anderson (EJ 189 658) assert that the author's assimilation theory of meaningful learning and retention is "hopelessly vague." Documented examination of these assertions indicates that they are unspecified, unsubstantiated, undocumented, and based on indisputable misrepresentation of published material and on logical…

Examines the hypothesis that some people are verbal learners and some people are visual learners. Presented a battery of 14 cognitive measures related to the visualizer-verbalizer dimension to 95 college students and then conducted correlational and factor analyses. Results have implications for how to conceptualize and measure individual…

Research on the role of visual memory and serial recall in dyslexia is reviewed. Findings touch on feature theory, which proposes that information is held in the form of "features," and that students for example learn to discriminate letters by marking certain identifiable aspects. Other studies are described which focus on speed of processing…

Fifty-three research studies on feedback timing and verbal learning underwent meta-analysis. Applied studies using actual classroom quizzes and real learning materials found immediate rather than delayed feedback to be more effective; experimental studies of acquisition of test content indicate the opposite. Laboratory studies of list learning…

A review of studies of word learning by normal adults and children, neuropsychological patients, and special development populations provides evidence that the phonological loop plays a crucial role in learning the novel phonological forms of new words, suggesting that the phonological loop stores unfamiliar sound patterns while more permanent…

The paper is a discussion of research on direct instruction and its implications for effective instruction in verbal math problem solving for elementary learning disabled students. Characteristics and problems of conventional programs are reviewed, as are the major features and logic of direct instruction programing. Components of instructional…

Effects on learning of most principal independent variables can be generalized within, but not between, five different categories: intellectual skills, verbal information, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes. Psychological research has been and continues to be well-served by this categorization. (GC)

Author discusses the importance of vocalization in the development of basic musicianship. He cites studies demonstrating that vocal teaching strategies, such as singing tonal patterns, aids music reading, memory, and instrumental performance. (SJL)

Reviews and discusses experimental and observational research on the function of the social environment of the child in the mastery of syntactic regularities during language acquisition. Theories based on modeling, imitation, and reinforcement are addressed. A 73-item reference list accompanies the text. (Author/JL)

Argues that mental images have functional properties similar to those of audiovisual media in that they can be intentionally and systematically used as the informational base for cognitive operations and as an aid to new learning. Experimental evidence is cited to support the claims. Nineteen references are cited. (Author/CHC)

Discussion of instructional materials design highlights perceptional modality preferences. Research on perception is reviewed; preferences for audio versus video, verbal versus pictorial, and listening versus reading are described; learning styles are considered; and theoretical and practical implications for audiovisual designers are suggested.…

Examines whether teaching poor text comprehenders reading strategies will improve reading comprehension. Third through fifth grade adequate decoders who were poor comprehenders were trained for 10 weeks in either a verbally or visually based reciprocal teaching program. Results reveal that training reading comprehension strategies in small groups…