Claire M. Fletcher-Flinn

The Efficacy of Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI): A Meta-Analysis

There has been a long-standing dispute about the efficacy of computer assisted instruction (CAI) with regard to the interpretation of effect size estimates in reviews using techniques of meta-analysis. It has been claimed that the data used to calculate these estimates come from studies which are methodologically flawed. The aim of this study was to provide an updated meta-analysis on the learning effect of (CAI) over a broad range of study features with particular attention focused on the effectiveness debate. Using standard procedures, the results and estimates were similar to previous reviews and showed a learning benefit for CAI. The mean effect size for CAI was (.24) for the years 1987–1992, with more recent studies showing an average of (.33). Although moderate, these estimates tended to raise the average student from at least the 50th and 60th percentile. However, studies which controlled for teacher and materials, and were of longer duration, and studies using pencil and paper equivalents of CAI showed no learning advantage over traditional forms of instruction. It is suggested that what accounts for the typical learning advantage of CAI in this meta-analysis and others is the better quality instruction provided by CAI materials. These materials seem versatile enough to be used effectively over a broad range of subjects and educational settings. While the materials did not seem to improve substantially over the past two decades as reflected by effect sizes, these estimates did not include the newer multimedia technology. It is concluded that educational approaches should be judged by a number of criteria including achievement gains and when this is done CAI may far surpass other forms of instruction.

Social skills assessment of children with autism in free-play situations:

Poor social functioning and limited play are characteristic of children with autism. Increasingly, education for children with autism is provided within mainstream settings, but given their particular difficulties, the adequate provision of educational services in such settings is challenging. This study presents observational data of the play behaviour and social interaction patterns of 10 children with autism in mainstream kindergartens and primary school playgrounds. The target children differed significantly in terms of their play and social interactions from typically developing children in the same settings. The adequacy of the provision of services for children with autism in mainstream provision is discussed.

Learning correspondences between letters and phonemes without explicit instruction

Three studies examined the sources of learning by which children, very early in learning to read, formed correspondences between letters and phonemes when these were not explicitly taught in the whole language instruction they received. There were three classes of predicted knowledge sources: (a) induced sublexical relations (i.e., induction of orthographic–phonological relations from the experience of print words), (b) acrophones from letter names, and (c) transfer from spelling experience. The results of Study 1 indicated that children used both sources (a) and (b). Study 2 results showed that source (a) dominated when the letters were initial components of pseudowords rather than isolated items. The transfer from phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences of the childrens spelling was examined in Study 3. The results were not consistent with the use of source (c). The findings of these studies have implications for the question of how early in learning to read children are able to use knowledge from their experience of print words as a source for phonological recoding.

Learning to read with underdeveloped phonemic awareness but lexicalized phonological recoding: a case study of a 3-year-old.

Case studies on very precocious readers are useful for examining what sources of knowledge and processes are necessary in the acquisition of reading. This is a case study of a 40-month-old child with a word reading age of 8 years 6 months. Tests indicated that she had no phoneme awareness beyond initial phonemes, and that her productive spelling was undeveloped. In reading she was highly proficient at rapid phonological recoding, both by correspondences that were contextually sensitive and those that were not. The former determined her high level of irregular pronunciations for irregular consistent non-words. Experiments indicated that she had well-specified orthographic lexical representations. It was concluded that her phonological recoding was an implicit process based on sublexical relations induced from her lexical representations rather than explicitly taught letter-sound correspondences. The implications of the results for major developmental models of reading acquisition are examined.

Computer Attitudes, Gender and Exploratory Behavior: A Developmental Study

Three studies were conducted which examined computer attitudes, and the effect of particular gender views on exploratory behavior. In the first study, preschool children were interviewed about their computer attitudes before and after an interactive storybook session. The results showed a high level of computer awareness, with boys holding more gender-stereotypical views, and experience did not seem to alter these beliefs. Those holding cross-gender beliefs about computers (mainly the girls) were more restrictive in their exploration of the software. In the other two studies, a questionnaire was used to assess computer attitudes among high school students. All held positive views with gender differences of degree but not kind. Few students held gender-stereotypical beliefs, although, there was a consensus that females were less proficient with computers. Unlike the preschoolers, the exploratory behavior of the older students was not related to attitudes. The results suggest that affirmative action programs are working within the high schools, but the provision of more female role models is considered to be important in helping to bridge the computer gender gap. Because gender attitudes about technology are formed early, these efforts need to include the very young.

A mechanism of implicit lexicalized phonological recoding used concurrently with underdeveloped explicit letter-sound skills in both precocious and normal reading development

These are findings of theoretical interest from: (i) follow-up of a case study of a precocious reader; and (ii) normally developing readers who served as comparison groups. The precocious reader was first reported when 2-3 years of age (Cognition 74 (2000) 177). From 3 to 7 years of age her precocious reading development continued, her word reading accuracy increasing from the 8- to the 16-year-level, although her phonemic awareness skills remained underdeveloped relative to word reading. Nonword reading continued to develop rapidly. Her word reading, however, was more than phonological recoding. At 5 years of age, in comparison with reading-level matched normal 11-year-olds she exhibited strong effects of semantic characteristics of words and evidence of well-specified lexical orthographic representations. In common with normal comparison 11-year-olds, who had not received instruction in explicit phonics, her explicit letter-sound skills were underdeveloped but she possessed high speed and accuracy in nonword reading, a result most theories of the acquisition of reading fail to explain. Her responses to irregularly spelt nonwords indicated higher proficiency than the 11-year-olds in acquiring lexical orthographic representations not predictable from prior phonological recoding knowledge. It is considered that this proficiency contributes to an explanation of her precocious reading development. A mechanism of implicit lexicalized phonological recoding is involved which explains the dissociation of skills in both the precocious reader and normally developing readers.

Eye contact in children's social interactions: What is normal behaviour?

Most remediation programmes for children with autism include training of eye contact behaviours, yet little data exist regarding levels of gaze behaviours in the social interactions of children without developmental disorders. Three behaviours were conventionally defined: (a) eye gaze, (b) joint attention, and (c) object engagement. Normative data were collected from children aged 5 to 10, who were observed in child-to-child social interactions (small playgroups). Joint attention was positively related to age and type of activity engaged in. Object engagement was consistently high across all age groups. Eye gaze was low relative to joint attention and object engagement, and was not significantly related to age. Eye gaze, as observed in small group interactions, was found to be significantly less than what has been reported for adult-child and adult-adult dyads. The implications of these findings for remedial training are discussed. Eye Contact in Childrens Social Interactions: What is Normal Behaviour?

The nature of skilled adult reading varies with type of instruction in childhood

Does the type of reading instruction experienced during the initial years at school have any continuing effect on the ways in which adults read words? The question has arisen in current discussions about computational models of mature word-reading processes. We tested predicted continuing effects by comparing matched samples of skilled adult readers of English who had received explicit phonics instruction in childhood and those who had not. In responding to nonwords that can receive alternative legitimate pronunciations, those adults having childhood phonics instruction used more regular grapheme-phoneme correspondences that were context free and used fewer vocabulary-based contextually dependent correspondences than did adults who had no phonics instruction. These differences in regularization of naming responses also extended to some low-frequency words. This apparent cognitive footprint of childhood phonics instruction is a phenomenon requiring consideration when researchers attempt to model adult word reading and when they select participants to test the models.

Pantomime and Theory of Mind

Abstract The relationship between pretense and the childs theory of mind (ToM) has recently become a major research interest in developmental psychology. Over the preschool years, pantomime, or gestural representation, progresses from object substitution by body parts (BPO) to imaginary object (IO) gestures without environmental support. In the present study, the authors investigated whether pantomime is a form of pretense that is linked to ToM development. Forty-four children between age 3 and 4 were tested. An association between IO pantomime and ToM measured by false-belief and appearance-reality tasks was observed. Those children who passed the ToM tasks produced significantly more IO pantomimes than those who did not pass the tasks. The association continued to be significant even when age was partialed out. Modeling IO pantomimes to the children did not improve their performance. The results therefore suggest that the lack of IO pantomime in younger children is not the result of preference. Differe...

The functions of phonology in the acquisition of reading: lexical and sentence processing.

It has been claimed (V. Coltheart, Laxon, Rickard, & Elton, 1988) that learners as well as skilled readers use phonology for multiple functions in reading-for-meaning tasks. This claim was examined using lexical decision and sentence evaluation tasks. It was found in the first experiment that the type of instruction learners had received determined whether there was prelexical use of phonology in responding to items out of sentence context. Type of instruction had no effect when the items were in context. In the second experiment, performances on a homophone sentence evaluation task and a homophone semantic decision task, which excluded sentence processing, were examined. The results suggest that phonology served the function of access to lexical meanings in addition to any function in postlexical sentence processing. The obtained relationships between relative frequencies of the presented and unpresented homophone mates and item accuracy on these tasks were inconsistent with exclusive use of “direct access” but consistent with access of lexical meanings via phonology and application of a “spelling-check” procedure when multiple homophonic meanings are activated.