Effects of Computerized Instruction on Mastery and Generalized Use of Commas Strategies by Students With LD

Abstract

The effects of an interactive multimedia (IM) software program for teaching comma strategies to students with learning disabilities (LD) were determined with regard to the students’ sentence-editing and sentence-construction skills. Students with LD at the middle-school and high-school levels were randomly selected in their intact cohorts for the experimental and control groups. Results showed that the experimental students completed the software program and readily learned information about and mastered the comma strategies. Additionally, experimental students at both school levels significantly outperformed the control students with regard to the percentage of correct commas inserted in an editing task. Moreover, they inserted significantly fewer incorrect commas. They also outperformed the control students with regard to the construction of complete sentences containing correct comma usage when prompted to write certain kinds of sentences while writing about a topic. Furthermore, both cohorts of experimental students with LD significantly outperformed their corresponding age groups of students who participated in validating the editing task. Therefore, this study indicates that students with LD can learn and generalize complex writing skills through the use of an IM program at a high level of quality.