This study examined the effects of reversing the color of stimulus materials used to teach survival vocabulary to 16 spastic cerebral palsied and 16 other multihandicapped adolescents with mental retardation. Subjects were taught with standard black-on-white and with white-on-black, sight word cards. Order of administration, color presentation, and words were counterbalanced; trials to criterion was the dependent measure. Results indicated that white-on-black cards improved the acquisition performance of both groups, but did not affect retention. Findings are consistent with previous related research with cerebral palsied and nondisabled children. Implications for practice and for additional research are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Borkowski, J., Peck, V., & Damberg, P. (1983). Attention, memory and cognition. In J.L. Matson & J.A. Mulich (Eds.), Handbook of mental retardation (pp. 479-497). New York: Pergamon Press.
2.
Dorry, G., & Zeaman, D. (1975). Teaching a simple reading vocabulary to retarded children: Effectiveness of fading and nonfading procedures. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 79, 711–716.
3.
Ekwall, E., & Shanker, J. (1988). Diagnosis and remediation of the disabled reader. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
4.
Ellis, N.R. (1970). Memory processes in retardates and normals. In N.R. Ellis (Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation (Vol. 4). New York: Academic Press.
5.
Gickling, E., Hargis, C., & Alexander, D. (1981). The function of imagery in sight word recognition among retarded and non-retarded children. Education and Training of the Mentally Retarded, 16, 259–263.
6.
Grossman, H. (1983). Classification in mental retardation. Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Deficiency.
7.
Hallahan, D., & Kauffman, J. (1988). Exceptional children: Introduction to special education (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
8.
Klausmeier, H.J., Feldhusen, J., & Check, J. (1959). An analysis of learning efficiency in arithmetic of mentally retarded children in comparison with children of average and high intelligence. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
9.
Langone, J. (1986). Teaching retarded learners: Curriculum and methods for improving instruction. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
10.
Marozas, D. (1982). Color-reversed figure-ground and visual perceptual visuo-motor performances of spastic cerebral palsied and normal children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.
11.
Martin, J., Schneider, K., Rusch, F., & Geske, T. (1982). Training mentally retarded individuals for competitive employment: Benefits of transitional employment. Exceptional Educational Quarterly, 3, 58–66.
12.
May, D. (1978). The effects of color reversal of figure and ground drawing materials on drawing performance. Exceptional Children, 44, 254–260.
13.
Mercer, S.C., & Snell, M.E. (1977). Learning theory research in mental retardation: Implications for teaching. Columbus, OH: Merrill.
14.
Patel, S., & Bharucha, E. (1972). The Bender Gestalt Test as a measure of perceptual and visuo-motor deficits in cerebral palsied children. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 14, 156–160.
15.
Polloway, E., Payne, J., Patton, J., & Payne, R. (1985). Strategies for teaching retarded and special needs learners. Columbus, OH: Merrill.
16.
Polloway, E., & Polloway, C. (March, 1981). Survival words for disabled readers. Academic Therapy, 16, 443–448.
17.
Schilit, J., & Caldwell, M.L. (1980). A word list of essential career vocational words for mentally retarded students. Education and Training of the Mentally Retarded, 15, 2.
18.
Sidman, M., & Cresson, O. (1973). Reading and crossmodal transfer of stimulus equivalences in severe retardation. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 77, 515–523.
19.
Snell, M.E. (1983). Functional reading. In M.E. Snell (Ed)., Systematic instruction of the moderately and severely handicapped (2nd ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill.
20.
Tinker, M. (1963). Legibility of print. Ames: Iowa State University Press.
21.
Uhlin, D., & Dickson, J. (1970). The effect of figure-ground reversal in the H-T-P drawings of spastic cerebral palsied children. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 26, 87–88.
22.
Westling, D., & Koorland, M. (1979). Considerations and tactics for improving discrimination learning. Teaching Exceptional Children, 11, 97–100.
23.
Worrall, N., & Singh, Y. (1983). Teaching TMR children to read using integrated picture cueing. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 87, 422–429.
24.
Zeaman, D., & House, B.J. (1963). The role of attention in retardate discrimination learning. In N.R. Ellis (Ed.), Handbook of mental deficiency. New York: McGraw Hill.
