Remediation of spelling deficits in mentally retarded children : comparative efficacy of overcorrection and interspersal training procedures.

摘要

This thesis investigated the comparative efficacy ofinstructional procedures to remediate spelling deficits inmentally retarded children. Three experiments are reported.In Experiment 1, the differential effects of overcorrectionand interspersal training were compared agains·t a no-trainingcontrol condition. While both procedures were superior tothe no-training control condition, children learnt to spellnew or difficult words equally well or better through overcorrectionthan interspersal training. Experiment 2 investigatedthe effects of interspersing known words with unknownwords. Overcorrection training was compared to overcorrectionwith interspersal training and a no-training control condition.Whilst children learnt to spell a large number of wordsduring overcorrection training, the interspersal techniqueprovided no additional assistance and hindered the progressof "poorer" spellers. In Experiment 3 overcorrection trainingwas compared to the corrective procedure used during theinterspersal training condition of Experiment 1 (the "Neefprocedure"). Children showed equally large spelling gainsduring both overcorrection and the Neef procedure. Thissuggests that the Neef procedure is an alternative overcorrectionprocedure. These results are discussed in termsof future research in instructional procedures to remediatethe spelling deficits in mentally retarded children.