The Effective Use of Symbols in Teaching Word Recognition to Children with Severe Learning Difficulties: A Comparison of Word Alone, Integrated Picture Cueing and the Handle Technique
By Sheehy, Kieron; International Journal of Disability, Development and Education (IJDDE), Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 47-59Publication Date: March 2002
Study conducted to compare the Handle Technique, Integrated Picture Cueing, and a Word Alone method for teaching word recognition to children with severe learning disabilities. Integrated Picture Cueing is a system that utilizes images embedded within words in order to facilitate recognition. Illustrated examples of this system are provided within the article. The Handle Technique was created for children who were initially unsuccessful in developing a sight vocabulary, as it utilizes a non-pictorial cue to prompt the recall of word names. The Word Alone method is simply the method of learning words by sight. Six children between the ages of eleven and thirteen participated in the first study, while a second study involved students between the ages of eight and twelve. Each participant was taught 12 words in all, as 4 words were randomly assigned to each study using the 3 teaching methods in a different order. The results demonstrated that utilizing all of these teaching strategies together could allow symbols to be used effectively when teaching word recognition to children with severe learning difficulties. Implications for future research are discussed.
Published by: Routledge, a division of Taylor & Francis Group (Website:http://www.routledge.com)
