Ameliorating attentional deficits and concomitant academic deficiencies in learning disabled children through cognitive training.

Abstract

The present study investigated the efficacy of a package of cognitive self-control procedures for ameliorating the attentional deficits of 12-year-old learning disabled children. It was hypothesized that a package of self-control procedures would improve academic performance on a number of measures in which learning disabled children generally perform poorly due to faulty attentional processes. Performance on measures of reading, attention, and inhibitory control was improved in these children as a function of the cognitive self-instructional training. The improvement continued to sustain even three months after the training had ceased. Implications are discussed for adapting the techniques utilized in the present study for classes which serve learning disabled children.