Most children who are congenitally deafblind are severely delayed in their communication development and many will not achieve symbolic understanding and expression. This article discusses developmental markers cited in the research literature as predictive of or facilitative of the development of symbolism. These markers include the growth toward…

The primary research problem confronting many experimental researchers is finding valid stimulus (instructional) and criterial (testing) materials that operationally fit their hypotheses. Five experimental studies have been completed, and two are in progress, using the Dwyer instructional materials to address the problem of finding valid…

This article describes how research in both educational theory and cognitive psychology tells us that visual learning is one of the best methods for teaching students of all ages how to think and how to learn. With this basic understanding, it is only natural that we teach and let students experience the power of visualization. Visualization can…

When learners explore dynamic and interactive visualisations they are often not able to interact with them in a systematic and goal-oriented way. Frequently, even supporting learners in processes of discovery learning does not lead to better learning outcomes. This can be due to missing pre-requisite knowledge such as the coherent mental…

Using the metaphoric story device of two tribes, one that builds their culture around words and the other which depends primarily on visual perception, this paper suggests a distinctive mental paradigm at work within the society of artists, who pursue visual literacy through graphic ideation. The author discusses his education in art and his…

A computer-based method of communicating syntactic knowledge to deaf students was designed, building on the visual orientation of deaf students and employing such American Sign Language techniques as visualization and directionality. The computer-based instructional treatments were presented as an educational game called the "Yes-No Game," with…

Seven visually handicapped adolescents, literate in braille but with little or no visual reading experience, were trained in letter and word recognition by closed circuit television for two weeks. All subjects increased their visual reading speed; in some cases, visual reading speed surpassed that of braille. (SJL)

Translations of three Arabic texts into English illustrate the differences between the aural and visual modes of text development. An analysis of the function of these modes in their social contexts explains the problems of the negative transfer of habits from one language to another. (Author/CB)

Reports the results of a feasibility study exploring the use of visual information for vowel production training in a foreign language. After 10 minutes of visual articulatory modeling and shaping, a native Spanish speaker improved her ability to produce a tongue position difference between English and Spanish vowels. (57 references) (Author/CB)

Production of an interactive videodisc containing 1981 slides and about 34 minutes of videotape on the topic of orthopedics for physical therapy is described, with attention given to instructional design considerations and the process of producing an interactive program. The videodisc method is seen as optimizing visual learning. (Author/MSE)

The purpose of this paper is to sensitize instructional message designers to the stereotypical signals which may be inherent in computer clip-art selections. A rationale is presented for the power of message design, and the differences between gender equality and gender equity are discussed. Several computer clip-art libraries were analyzed, and…

Using seven trainable mentally-retarded students, aged 10-19, the study assessed the efficacy of an action mnemonic procedure for teaching letter-sound correspondences. The subjects were successfully trained to emit appropriate action-sounds in the presence of pictures incorporating the target letter, with picture-prompts being gradually faded to…

This study, to determine whether complexity of detail, scale, and background help subjects to learn technical information, demonstrated no significant difference between groups. One group used the existing self-contained learning package with many complex visuals; the other group used lessons identical in the audio portion but containing…

Explains how computers can offer learners powerful assistance in their acquisition of certain visual thinking skills. Describes the limitations and potential of using computers as tools for visual thinking with links to creative writing activities in a fourth-grade class. (MM)

Investigates the supportive side of current technology in the visual process of learning and the issues instructional designers must address to utilize these capabilities and maximize their effects. Provides an overview of visual memory and discusses information processing and analogic reasoning, cognition and visual information processing, visual…