The author replies to the article titled "Controversial Medical Treatments of Learning Disabilities" (R. Sieben), and reviews the use of sensory integrative therapy for children with learning disabilities. (IM)

Two experiments evaluated whether picture mnemonics help prereaders learn letter-sound associations. Pictures integrating the associations were compared with disassociated pictures and a no-picture control group. Children taught with integrated mnemonics learned more letter-sound associations and more letter-picture associations than the other two…

In a series of four experiments, subjects used scales of loudness, pitch, and brightness to evaluate the meanings of a variety of synesthetic metaphors--expressions in which words or phrases describing experiences proper to one sense modality transfer their meaning to another modality. (Author/PN)

Eight profoundly hearing-impaired children, aged 5-11, received tactual word recognition training with tactual speech perception aids. Following training, subjects were tested on trained words and new words. Performance was significantly better on both sets of words when words were presented with a combined condition of tactual aid and aided…

The article describes the neurolinguistic programing model and applies it to teaching orientation and mobility skills to congenitally blind students, who have access to only the auditory and kinesthetic primary systems. Understanding the effects on thought of limited representational systems can help trainers teach more effective cane or dog guide…

Nine children participated in one of three groups: children diagnosed as both sensory and language impaired, children diagnosed as language impaired, and normally developing children matched for language level. Sensory integration activities prior to language intervention resulted in significant changes on the Battelle Developmental Inventory for…

A study used the Three-Interval Forced-Choice Test of Speech Pattern Contrast Perception (THRIFT) to examine sensory-level speech-perception performance under the input modalities of hearing alone, speech-reading alone, and the two combined in 44 children (ages 5-10). Within each condition there were significant influences of age on performance…

Three experiments assessed the intersensory redundancy hypothesis in early infancy. Findings indicated that habituation to a bimodal rhythm resulted in discrimination of a novel rhythm, whereas habituation to the same rhythm presented unimodally resulted in no evidence of discrimination. Temporal synchrony between the bimodal auditory and visual…

Comparison of two strategies--manual guidance only and manual guidance plus verbal prompts--with 6 students (ages 9 to 19) whose multiple disabilities included total blindness and severe mental retardation found that prompting methods that require shifting verbal information to the performance of a manual task may interfere with the learning of…

A five-step model intervention called "Sensational Thinking," which incorporates readiness, reception, reflection, revelation, and re-creation activities, was evaluated with four kindergarten classes. Experimental groups showed increased creativity over control groups in solving paradoxical problems. The study is seen as supporting the premise…

During an out-of-body experience (OBE), the experient seems to be awake and to see his body and the world from a location outside the physical body. A closely related experience is autoscopy (AS), which is characterized by the experience of seeing one's body in extrapersonal space. Yet, despite great public interest and many case studies,…