Increasing Metacomprehension in Learning Disabled and Normally Achieving Students through Self-Questioning Training

1982 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Y. L. Wong ◽  
Wayne Jones
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Sixth Graders ◽  
Ninth Graders ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Normally Achieving ◽  
Active Nature ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Possible Cause

This study investigated the hypothesis that insufficient metacomprehension is one possible cause underlying learning disabled adolescents' comprehension problems, and that training them to monitor their understanding of important textual elements fosters metacomprehension and, consequently, improves their comprehension performance. A total of 120 learning disabled eighth and ninth graders and normally achieving sixth graders participated in the study. Half the subjects were randomly assigned to receive a 5-step self-questioning training in which they learned to monitor their understanding of important textual units. The results clearly showed that training substantially increased learning disabled adolescents' awareness of important textual units, as well as their ability to formulate good questions involving those units. Moreover, training facilitated their comprehension performance. However, training did not substantially increase normally achieving sixth graders' metacomprehension or comprehension performance. The differential effects of training on the two groups of students underscore the inactive nature of the learning disabled adolescents' reading as opposed to the active nature of reading in normally achieving sixth graders.

Activating the Inactive Learner: Use of Questions/Prompts to Enhance Comprehension and Retention of Implied Information in Learning Disabled Children

1980 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Y. L. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Sixth Graders ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Normally Achieving ◽  
Educational Implications

This article reports the findings of two studies involving comprehension and retention of implied information in learning disabled and normally achieving second and sixth graders. In the first study, evidence was obtained of inadequate processing of implied information in learning disabled children in both grades. In the second study, a simple questions/prompts procedure brought about improved/adequate processing of implied information in new, comparable groups of learning disabled second and sixth graders. The results were interpreted to support Torgesen's conceptualization of the learning disabled child as an inactive learner. Lastly, educational implications of the results were discussed.

Cognitive and Metacognitive Aspects of Learning Disabled Adolescents' Composing Problems

1989 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Y.L. Wong ◽  
Roderick Wong ◽  
Jennifer Blenkinsop
Keyword(s):  
Writing Process ◽  
Eighth Graders ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Sixth Graders ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Normally Achieving ◽  
Eleventh Graders

This study investigated the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of writing problems in learning disabled adolescents. Twenty-one learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders constituted the target population. The comparison groups included 15 normally achieving eighth graders and a reading-age control group of 23 normally achieving sixth graders. The participants wrote two reportive essays and one argument essay, and answered a questionnaire designed to probe their metacognition about the writing process. Results indicated that normally achieving eighth graders consistently and clearly surpassed their learning disabled counterparts in both quality and quantity of essay writing. Adult judges rated normally achieving eighth graders' essays to be substantially more interesting, much clearer in communicating the goals, and to contain a substantially more felicitous word choice than those of learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders. Moreover, they wrote longer essays with much fewer spelling errors than learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders. Finally, they possessed more mature and articulate conceptions of the writing task, and were more aware of the relevance of planning and audience in writing. In striking contrast, the learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders were comparable to the normally achieving sixth graders in their performances across a broad front. This comparability occurred in the three categories of holistic ratings of essays (interestingness, clarity in communication of goals, and word choice), structural ratings of paragraphs, and metacognition about the writing process. Interestingly, learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders were superior to normally achieving sixth graders in length of essays. However, the consistent, broad picture was that the learning disabled adolescents performed at a very similar level to that of younger normally achieving children. These findings permit the conclusion that the learning disabled adolescents in this study showed a developmental delay in the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of writing.

Syntactic Development in the Oral Language of Learning Disabled and Normal Students at the Intermediate and Secondary Level

1983 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rochelle B. Simms ◽  
W. Donald Crump
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Oral Language Development ◽  
Normally Achieving ◽  
Density Score ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
Two Indices

Syntax is a crucial component of oral language development. Frequently, learning disabled children's oral language development is characterized by syntax problems. Hence, since deviations in oral language development may form the basis for identification of learning disabilities, adequate indices of oral language development are needed. The purpose of this study was to explore two indices of syntactic development in oral language, the T-unit and the Syntactic Density Score. Learning disabled students and a matched group of normally achieving peers were compared on these indices at four age levels. Results are reported for each measure along with a discussion and implications.

Development of learning-disabled and normally achieving children's causal attributions

1985 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Kistner ◽  
Karen White ◽  
Mary Haskett ◽  
Frank Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Causal Attributions ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Normally Achieving

Performance of Students with Learning Disabilities on Validity Indexes of the Perception of Ability Scale for Students

1992 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Chapman ◽  
Frederic J. Boersma
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Learning Problems ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Students With Learning Disabilities ◽  
Regular Form ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Normally Achieving ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
Response Biases

The present study examined the performance of 78 students with learning disabilities and 71 normally achieving students in regular Form 1 (Grade 6) classes on three validity indexes of the Perception of Ability Scale for Students, a measure of academic self-concept. The three indexes assess consistency of responding, negative or positive response biases, and misrepresentation of self-perceptions in terms of unrealistic perceptions of perfection in school. Analysis showed that learning disabled students obtained significantly lower Full Scale scores than the normal students, but no significant differences appeared on the three validity indexes. Users of the test can be confident that learning disabled students respond to items in as valid a manner as other students. Having specific learning problems in school should not interfere with response patterns on this scale.

Communication Apprehension and its Educational Implications: Some Initial Australian Data

1979 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Crocker ◽  
Donald Klopf ◽  
Ronald Cambra
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Initial Data ◽  
Communication Apprehension ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Educational Implications ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Academic Implications ◽  
Similar Incidence

About 20 per cent of American college students suffer from debilitating communication apprehension (McCroskey, 1977) and, if a sampling of Australian college students typifies the larger population, Australia has a similar incidence. In America, the communication apprehensives are being classed as learning disabled or handicapped and are beginning to receive specialized instruction in order to maximize their learning potential (Hurt and Preiss, 1978). Australian college students may benefit from similar training. The purpose of this article is to describe the nature of communication apprehension (CA) and its academic implications, to present initial data on its prevalence in Australia, and to indicate some methods used to reduce its effects.

Linguistic and Metacognitive Aspects of Normally Achieving and Learning Disabled Children's Communication Process

1983 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet L. Olsen ◽  
Bernice Y.L. Wong ◽  
Ronald W. Marx
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Board Game ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Normally Achieving ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
Regulatory Strategies ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Continue Research ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies

This paper reports on two experiments which examined the linguistic and metacognitive aspects of the communication process in normally achieving and learning disabled children. In the first experiment, 15 normally achieving and 30 learning disabled children were individually taught a board game. Results showed that in communicating with a partner, learning disabled children were less aware of sociolinguistic strategy and used fewer planfulness strategies than their normally achieving peers. Moreover, they used substantially fewer tag questions, adverbs, and prepositional phrases. These results confirmed previous research findings on learning disabled children's communication problems. In the second experiment, 15 of the learning disabled children were trained to use sociolinguistic strategies of planfulness for one half hour a day for three days. The remaining 15 LD subjects engaged in an irrelevant task. Posttests followed training. To test for maintenance and generalization of learned skills, the trained group was asked to teach the board game and another game to a peer and a first grader four days after the posttest. Results indicated that training increased learning disabled children's sociolinguistic awareness and their use of sociolinguistic strategies of planfulness. Interestingly, the trained group's language increased in complexity after training. While use of pragmatic strategies was maintained, generalization of the trained skills and of the changes in linguistic complexity was not observed. Results suggest the need to continue research on learning disabled children's language problems and the importance of incorporating self-regulatory strategies in training programs designed to improve learning disabled children's communication skills.

Morphological Development and Writing Ability in Children and Adults

1991 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyla Rubin ◽  
Patricia A. Patterson ◽  
Miriam Kantor
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Second Graders ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Written Expression ◽  
Morphological Development ◽  
Morphological Knowledge ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Normally Achieving

The purpose of this study was to investigate morphological knowledge in spoken language and its relationship to written representation of morphemes by normally achieving second graders, language-learning disabled children, and adults with literacy problems. Research dealing with the written expression of populations with language-learning difficulties has consistently indicated that these populations tend to make morphemic errors when spelling words. If a deficit in morphological knowledge is an underlying factor, then these individuals might also be expected to perform poorly on tasks that require them to apply morphological rules in spoken language (an implicit level of morphological knowledge) or to analyze the morphemic structure of spoken words (an explicit level of morphological knowledge). Analyses found both these levels of morphological knowledge to be highly related to morpheme use in written language samples, and suggest that morphological knowledge does not develop solely as a function of maturation or exposure to language. Implications of these findings for assessment and intervention are addressed.

Social Intelligence: A Concept in Search of Data

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1123-1132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke A. Shanley ◽  
Ronald E. Walker ◽  
Jeanne M. Foley
Keyword(s):  
Grade Level ◽  
Social Intelligence ◽  
Sixth Graders ◽  
Ninth Graders ◽  
Twelfth Graders ◽  
Iq Test ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Ninth Grade Students ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
The Relationship

300 students from Grades 6, 9, and 12 (equally represented by males and females at each grade) were administered the Otis IQ test and six of Guilford's tests of social intelligence. The data were analyzed to ascertain the relationship between IQ and social intelligence and the effects of sex and grade level on social intelligence. The hypothesis that social intelligence increases with age was supported by the significant main effects which indicated that twelfth graders quite consistently scored higher than ninth graders who, in turn, scored higher than sixth graders. Females scored significantly higher than males on two of the six Guilford measures. The majority of the correlations between IQ and social intelligence were significant and those for the ninth grade students, in particular, were sufficiently high to raise questions about the independence of these two types of intelligence.

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