The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the parents' role in their child's visual guidance program, the philosophies behind the program, and the teacher's responsibility to child vision. The first chapter, on parent involvement, instructs them to provide an environment to stimulate intellectual growth and stresses the importance of the…

A scheme is presented for the development of perception and learning in which a hierarchy of skills begins with innate response systems and progresses through gross motor activities to more specialized motor systems represented by eye-hand coordination. The next stage of development, the control of ocular muscles, is discussed and the development…

To investigate the underlying factors of visual discrimination, memory, rule abstraction, language, and serial ordering in reading success, 79 poor and 65 good deaf readers were administered a battery of tests. Poor readers were deficient in lower-order visual discrimination and memory abilities; higher-order visual discrimination skills were…

Determination of the effectiveness of visual perceptual training upon word recognition and subsequent reading achievement of the culturally disadvantaged first grader was this study's goal. Forty-eight pupils in two sections of the first grade of an elementary school in Louisiana tested the hypotheses that no difference would be revealed in the…

A research project involving 16 experiments investigated the nature of the encoding process for verbal materials, particularly differences arising from mode of presentation. The results showed that a change in mode of presentation of items produced a recovery from interference in short term retention. Since intermodal interference was lower than…

Two studies are reported. The first is based on Piaget's assertion that the child's representation of his world is dependent on the level of cognitive development at which he is currently functioning. Forty-eight normals and 48 retardates were given a visual memory task. They were asked to recall a configural presentation in a number of ways,…

An evaluation of research in the area of perceptual training suggests procedures for teachers to follow until more definitive information is obtained. First, educators should build their programs on broadly-based but accurate classifications of perceptual skills. They should also be aware of the theoretical assumptions which influence perceptual…

This study sought to determine whether language interference would have a significant effect on visual perception and whether the effect would be more noticeable for boys than for girls. For this cross-cultural study, second-grade pupils were employed. One group of 59 resided in Puerto Rico; the second group of 63, in New Jersey. The sample groups…

A project conducted several years ago to develop informal mathematical learning experiences at kindergarten level is compared with the results of the work-book type (formal) program being used at that time. It is hypothesized that kindergarten pupils who study mathematical concepts in a planned, sequential, systematic, but non-workbook (informal)…

A total of 24 four-year-old children were posed with the paired-associate task of learning where 9 different animals lived, using apparatus designed for self instruction through picture matching. In Experiment I, children, who were taught to prompt themselves as needed by referring to a picture book, attained almost perfect scores, significantly…

This volume suggests not only that the reading process is more complex than previously assumed but that, like so many other cognitive and linguistic skills, the richness and depth of the complexity increase the more closely it is examined. Each chapter focuses upon various aspects of the reading process and provides for possible innovations and…

The Berry Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration was devised as a measure of the degree to which visual perception and motor behavior are integrated in young children, measured by the copying of geometric forms. In this study, 64 three-year-old children were tested individually to investigate (1) whether there is a correlation between…

This handbook, primarily for parents and teachers of preschool through third grade children, provides some insights into Piaget's theories about how children think and learn and presents ideas for using Piagetian-type activities and games in the home or classroom. (The handbook does not attempt to give a comprehensive analysis of Piaget's theory…

A survey of research indicates that a high correlation exists between the attending behavior of beginning readers and their ability to learn to read. Level of attention can be associated with ability to ignore unrelated stimuli, interest in the reading material, perceptual problems, and the sex of the reader. It is suggested that sex differences…

Examples of diagnostic formulations of the "Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt" are outlined and their instructional implications are delineated. The difficulties in paper and pencil copying of geometric designs focus primarily on: separation and overlapping of figures, repetition of design elements, pencil grip, visual perceptions, pattern…