Describes a study in which drama and sign language were used in a multisensory approach to language learning to tap the physical, kinesthetic, and visual abilities of four-year-old Head Start children. Finds that the teacher-directed activities resulted in significantly higher scores for children in the treatment group. (PRA)

A study examined the benefits of multisensory structured language (MSL) instruction in Spanish for 39 high school students at risk for foreign-language learning difficulties and 16 controls. On measures of oral and written foreign-language proficiency, the MSL and control groups scored significantly higher than those instructed using traditional…

Discusses learning-style differences in students and the need for teachers to present opportunities for children to develop their stronger gifts and to strengthen their weaker areas. Alternate ways of teaching writing to children are highlighted, including providing multisensory stimuli, role-playing, and storytelling. (CR)

(MDH)

Presents an earth science activity on rocks to demonstrate the vital links between minerals and rocks. Uses different kinds of breads to demonstrate that rocks, like breads, are composed of various ingredients in different proportions. (ASK)

A computer-animated tutor, Baldi, has been successful in teaching vocabulary and grammar to children with autism and those with hearing problems. The present study assessed to what extent the face facilitated this learning process relative to the voice alone. Baldi was implemented in a Language Wizard/Tutor, which allows easy creation and…

This article discusses how Montessori teachers create authentic and meaningful experiences for older students in the modern technological age while fostering the sensitive stages of imagination and exploration of the world around them. Maria Montessori observed that children learn to read and write through their spontaneous, independent behavior.…

This paper introduces and develops the premise that technology should be used as a tool to be adapted to early childhood education rather than adapting the preschool curriculum to computers. Although recent evidence suggests a national interest in having high technology play a role in the teaching of young children, particularly in reading,…

Instructors who accept responsibility for improving the spelling of their students, must, to be successful, turn that responsibility over to the students. Abjuring their position as rule givers, effective spelling teachers encourage students to pursue their study inductively by exploring the relationship of the spoken language to the written form,…

Teaching approaches for adult English as second language students with little previous formal education or native language literacy cannot rely on the traditional written materials. For students who cannot be reached through the written word, approaches must be devised that engage other channels of perceptions. Classroom activities are suggested…

The final five units of a program designed to teach reading readiness to visually handicapped children who are potential braille or large print readers are presented. Learning activities, games, and lesson plans are provided for the following five units: positions (up/down, over/under), relationships (same/different, part/whole), time (first/last,…

An experiment to measure learning when stimuli are presented through one or two channels showed that an auditory signal combined with a relevant picture--the two-channel cue summation condition--was superior to five other methods of communication, or "treatments." These other five were: one-channel visual only; one-channel auditory only;…

An exploratory investigation was made of cross-modality matching within the context of word recognition skills among beginning adult readers. The specific aim of the study was to assess the possibility that a deficit in cross-modality matching might be potentially useful as a diagnostic and predictive indicator of the rate at which adults learn to…