Comparison of Automated and Human Instruction for Developmentally Retarded Preschool Children

Abstract

More speculation than empirical data has been generated on the value automated instruction holds for special education. As automated technology advances, the possibilities for classroom instruction increase. The purpose of the present study was to compare automated instruction with human instruction to teach a visual discrimination. Twenty developmentally retarded preschool children were trained on two discriminations with automated instruction and two discriminations with human instruction. With trials to criterion as the dependent variable, the results showed human instruction significantly better than automated instruction (p = .0001). Nine children did reach criterion for both discriminations with automated instruction and therefore showed they could learn a discrimination without the necessity of human interaction. These results are discussed in terms of the value automated instruction may have for classroom instruction with the developmentally retarded student.