Computational Rates of Educable Mentally Retarded Adolescents with and without Calculators in Comparison to Normals

Abstract

This study examined the effects of two interventions on the computational performance of eight educable mentally retarded adolescents who completed selected addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. One intervention (A) presented the pencil and paper algorithm for each class of problems. The other treatment (B) presented the calculator algorithm for each class of problems. For comparison, the computational performance of eight regular class peers, who completed identical problems through a pencil and paper pre-baseline test, was also sampled. The results of the study were twofold. First, the calculator treatment produced a marked increase in the correct computational performance of the handicapped students over baseline measures for each of the four classes of problems, while the pencil and paper treatment did not produce higher correct performance than incorrect performance in any of the four classes of problems. Second, by the use of calculators, the handicapped students were able to complete relatively complex arithmetic problems with greater accuracy than the sample of nonhandicapped students without calculators.

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