Almost nothing is known about the capacity of minimally verbal students with autism to develop literacy skills. Shared reading is a regular practice in early education settings and is widely thought to encourage language and literacy development. There is some evidence that children with severe disabilities can be engaged in adapted shared reading…

Recent currents in language learning research highlight the social and emergent aspects of second language (L2) development and recognize that learners need opportunities for interaction in meaningful contexts supported by explicit attention to language itself. These perspectives suggest new ways of conceptualizing the challenges faced by children…

For the forty-second time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains 37 papers dealing…

The use of a nonvisual tactual and auditory tutorial method to teach initial reading skills to 16 reading disabled children (ages 7 to 14) was evaluated. The method was shown to be less effective than sighted methods. (DB)

Methods for teaching pupils to use their senses to explore colors, shapes, textures, and sounds of the great outdoors are described. Ideas include: (1) having children hug their own special tree; (2) looking for geometric shapes in nature; (3) taking nocturnal nature walks; (4) building a track for racing insects; and (5) collecting objects with…

The author discusses the role of educational "crutches" that help elementary learning disabled children in tasks involving spatial orientation, visual perception, and auditory short-term memory. Teachers are cautioned to observe how children act in different situations and to allow them whatever "crutches" are effective. (CL)

Results indicated no interaction between modality preference and reading method. The visual method of teaching resulted in higher achievement regardless of modality preference; however, children with an auditory modality preference were generally superior in achievement compared to those with a visual preference. (Author)

The paper reviewed 15 studies investigating the interaction between perceptual modality preference and method of teaching reading. (Author)

Eighteen science activities that help children learn to use their senses are described. Multisensory activities and single-sensory activities are provided. Each activity includes a list of materials, the procedure, information for the teacher, questions, and a vocabulary list of words often used by children to describe what is taking place. (KR)

The limitation of stimuli which occurs in visually impaired children can be partially ameliorated by strengthening other sense modalities. (JH)

This booklet presents educational programs and activities for perceptual training of 4- to 9-year-olds and older children with learning and reading problems. The development of visual and auditory perception needs to be understood as closely related to and dependent upon other developmental areas, including motor, language, thinking, emotional,…

Somatic knowing involves senses and mind/body action and reaction. An embodied education grounded in somatics is more holistic and values areas typically neglected or trivialized in education, such as the arts. (SK)

Teachers of elementary-grade deaf students make mistakes which can handicap communication by setting up less than optimal visual conditions. Four areas need to be considered: angle of regard, size of communication frame, rate of communication, and placement of teaching materials. (SBH)

A resource teacher describes a word imprinting technique which helped to increase reading and memory skills of an 8-year-old student with auditory perception problems. (CL)

Kindergarteners and first and fourth graders watched an educational television program containing three types of humor. Information acquisition and funniness were assessed. Compared with distortion-free humor, irony resulted in overestimates of properties of novel objects introduced in the program. Age did not diminish perceptual distortion.…