Designing Spelling Instruction for Learning-Disabled Children: An Emphasis on Unit Size, Distributed Practice, and Training for Transfer

Abstract

This paper describes an intervention designed to enhance spelling achievement for learning-disabled (LD) elementary school children. A total of 39 LD children were instructed for 8 sessions over a period of 3 weeks. An experimental group ( n = 24) was taught with lessons that incorporated reduced unit size, distributed practice and review, and training for transfer, and a comparison group ( n = 15) with methods that are typically used in the teaching of spelling. While all children could spell less than 10% of the words on the pretest, the experimental group achieved 80% accuracy on spelling words taught and 75% accuracy on transfer words on a delayed posttest. This was higher than the average posttest performance of the comparison group (60% accuracy on training items and 50% accuracy on transfer items). These findings suggest that LD children can improve their spelling skills if sound remedial principles are applied consistently. The instructional sequence described in this paper can serve both as a model of effective spelling instruction and as a diagnostic, trial-remediation technique for a disabled population.

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