Gordon R. Alley

Visual Imagery and Self-Questioning Strategies to Improve Comprehension of Written Material

Two learning strategies, visual imagery and self-questioning, designed to increase reading comprehension, were taught to six learning disabled students using a multiple baseline across strategies design. The visual imagery strategy requires the student to read a passage and to create visual images representative of the content of the passage. The self-questioning strategy teaches the student to form questions about the content of a passage as he or she reads to maintain interest and to enhance recall. Specific instructional procedures were followed that included: (a) testing the students current level of functioning, (b) describing the strategy, (c) modeling the strategy, (d) verbal rehearsal of strategy steps, (e) practice in reading ability level material, and (f) practice in grade level material.

Instructional Practices for Promoting Skill Acquisition and Generalization in Severely Learning Disabled Adolescents.

Programming options for learning disabled (LD) adolescents have received increased attention over the past decade. In addition to curriculum-related issues, efforts must also be aimed at solving the basic question of how to instruct LD adolescents to ensure maximum skill acquisition and generalization. Results of research conducted with a wide range of LD adolescents have shown that severely learning disabled (SLD) students need very stringent and systematic instructional procedures in order to acquire and apply learning strategies. Using a learning strategies approach, this article outlines specific procedures designed to promote acquisition and generalization of learning strategies in LD adolescents. First students are taught a specific strategy in isolation before being asked to apply it to controlled materials, and later to transfer the strategy to regular-class content. Unless sound instructional practices are implemented, the performance of SLD students is adversely affected.

Are There Learning Disabilities after High School

appropriate public education. Washington DC: US Office of Special Education, 1980. Sterns, M. f Greene, D., & David, J. Local implementation of PL. 94-142: First year report of a longitudinal study. Menlo Park CA: SRI International, Education Research Center, 1980. Wright, A. Local implementation of P. L. 94-142: Second year report of a longitudinal study. Menlo Park CA: SRI International, Education Research Center, 1980.

Effects of Generalization Instruction on the Written Language Performance of Adolescents with Learning Disabilities in the Mainstream Classroom.

Much of the instructional success realized with youth with learning disabilities in remedial settings often dissipates once these students return to their mainstream classes. The purpose of this study was to design and validate an instructional sequence that would promote the generalization of written expression learning strategies to mainstream settings. This article delineates some of the elements necessary to promote generalization of skills with learning disabled (LD) populations.

A Peer-Tutored, Instructional Management Program in Computational Mathematics for Incarcerated, Learning Disabled Juvenile Delinquents

This study examined the feasibility of an instructional management program for learning disabled, incarcerated youths. It compared peer tutors and learning disabilities teachers as implementers of a computational mathematics program for incarcerated, learning disabled juvenile delinquents. Thirty-eight learning disabled juvenile delinquents ranging in age from 12 to 17 years and ranging in grade from seventh to eleventh were instructed for eight weeks. The instructional management of learning disabled, juvenile delinquents using peer tutors was found to be a workable alternative when individualizing a computational mathematics program for these students.

Identification of Learning Disabled Adolescents: A Bayesian Approach

The identification of learning disabled adolescents for program placement is a major concern of school personnel. An array of problems are associated with the identification of learning disabled populations ranging from the use of the best differentiating characteristics to the types of measures used. The identification model discussed in this article attempts to address some of these problems. The Bayesian approach is an alternative to traditional methods that rely primarily on psychometric data or classroom/clinical observation for identification decisions.

Academic Achievement and Minimal Brain Dysfunction

To investigate a possible predictive relationship between a diagnosis of minimal brain dysfunction (MBD) and the childs academic achievement, the following comparisons were made: (1) Positive neurological and/or visual motor findings (MBD), versus (vs.) negative neurological and visual motor findings (NORMAL); (2) Positive neurological (N+) vs. negative neurological (N-) findings; (3) Positive visual motor (VM+) vs. negative visual motor (VM-) findings; (4) N+ and VM+ vs. NORMAL; (5) N- and VM+ vs. NORMAL; (6) N+ and VM- vs. NORMAL; (7) N+ and VM+ vs. N+ and VM+. The subjects within each comparison were matched by IQ and chronological age. The dependent variables were grade level scores in word recognition, arithmetic, and spelling as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test. Analysis of variance performed computed for each comparison failed to reveal significant differences. The results provide no evidence that a diagnosis of minimal brain dysfunction based on a pediatric neurological evaluation and/or visualmotor impairment as measured by the Bender-Gestalt, is a useful predictor of academic achievement.

Identification Decisions: Who is the Most Consistent?

In an attempt to analyze the assumption that a multidisciplinary team approach is necessary for identification and evaluation of LD students, this study was designed to a) examine the type of judgments on LD characteristics rendered by different team members, and b) explore which of the groups typically represented on a staffing team was most homogeneous in making decisions on LD students. A sample of 420 professionals and 30 parents were asked to complete a component disability instrument developed for the purpose of obtaining subjective judgments from each of the professional groups and the parents. The consistency of judgment among groups found in this study indicated that the judgments of the groups were comparable when making judgments on LD and non-LD characteristics. Thus, the findings were supportive of the multidisciplinary approach to identification and evaluation of LD children and youth.

Effects of white noise on short-term memory of learning disabled boys.

5 levels of white noise (22 to 72 dB) introduced during the performance of a short-term memory task (repeating 4-digit numbers) did not differentiate scores of 10 normally achieving 9- to 11-yr.-old boys from 10 boys with learning disabilities. For all boys together increasing noise levels decreased performance of younger children relative to that of older Ss.

Minimal Cerebral Dysfunction as It Relates to Social Class

The relationship of minimal cerebral dysfunction to socioeconomic status was investigated in a midwestern child development clinic population. Two previous reports were contrasted, one stating that minimal cerebral dysfunction (MCD) occurred predominantly in the lower socio-economic strata, the other suggesting that this was more prevalent in the upper classes. It was concluded that: (1) MCD is distributed proportionately with a diagnosis of normal among five social classes; (2) MCD, regardless of the presence or absence of an associated behavior disorder, does not change in its proportional incidence in all social class levels when compared to a normal group; (3) within the MCD group, the presence or absence of an associated behavior disorder does not change the proportion of incidence in the five social class levels. The importance of the sampling population and the background and attitude of the clinician as a possible variable in formulating a diagnosis are discussed.