Reviewing the Literature on Fernald's Technique of Remedial Reading.

Abstract

BETWEEN THE TWO World ars, Grace Fernald developed a multisensory approach to teaching reading and spelling (VAKT) that united visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile elements. Subsequently, this method has been much discussed and subjected to experimentation, for many people believe VAKT to be effective with learners who have failed to progress in reading under the usual methods, while others are doubtful. This article reviews Fer nald's theories and the literature concerning her method of teaching reading to disabled learners. The distinguishing feature of Fernald's technique is tracing. Like many teaching methods, tracing has been in use repeatedly for centuries. Sand tracing was used two thousand years ago in Roman schools, and the writings of Plato, Horace, and Sene ca mention use of kinesthetic and tactile stimuli (Irvine 1970). Word blindness, an inability to read, had also been recognized be fore Fernald, but little had been accomplished to correct the problem. Often, children and adults with this handicap were thought to be mental ly retarded or stubborn and were subsequently ignored. In developing a system to aid these nonreaders, Fernald wanted to fit the learning environment to the idio syncracies of each child. Observing that sometimes children could not