EMR Children Research Articles

Neuropsychological symptomology underlying the reading performance of LD and EMR children : Gurmal Rattan, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Kirk John, Intermediate Unit I, Brownsville, PA, & Arlene I. Rattan, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic

Neuropsychological symptomology underlying the reading performance of LD and EMR children : Gurmal Rattan, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Kirk John, Intermediate Unit I, Brownsville, PA, & Arlene I. Rattan, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic

Neuropsychological symptomology underlying the reading performance of LD and EMR children

Neuropsychological symptomology underlying the reading performance of LD and EMR children

Introducing EMR children to arithmetical operations: A program involving pictorial problems and distinctive-feature prompts

This study assessed a program involving distinctive-feature prompts for teaching four EMR children to use the appropriate arithmetical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) in the presence of multicomponent pictorial problems. The prompts highlighted critical features of the problems and cued the operations implied. The operations were computed by means of pocket calculators adapted to the response requirements. Training was carried out according to a modified multiple-probe design. Data indicate that the program was effective in establishing the use of operations with all subjects. This behavior was also displayed on problems portraying actions not included in training. The findings are discussed in terms of distinctive-feature prompting, orienting responses, and self-cueing. Attention is given to the generalization of responding across problems, and to educational implications of the program.

Adaptive Behavior, Social Adjustment, and Academic Achievement of Regular and Special Education Children

Abstract The purpose of the present study was to compare the adaptive behavior, social adjustment and academic achievement of educable mentally retarded, learning disabled, behavior disordered, and regular class children. A sample of 120 children, aged 7 through 9 years, was selected from class rolls on the basis of group membership, race and sex. Significant differences were found in adaptive behavior, social adjustment, and academic achievement among the four groups; none of the instruments, however, was able to differentiate among all four categories of children. Adaptive behavior and academic achievement differentiated EMR and regular class children from the other two groups, while social adjustment appeared to be the most effective variable in differentiating BD children from the other three categories. Findings of this study support the notion that measures of these abilities provide information of use to teachers, psychologists, and placement committees in their attempts to provide the most appropriate and meaningful education for students with special needs.

The relationship of estimated learning potential to performance on a learning task and achievement

The Estimated Learning Potential (ELP), a score obtained through the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA), is purported to be a more appropriate index of potential for socioculturally different children. Prior studies have suggested a lower correlation with academic achievement than that of the traditional IQ score. The validity of the ELP has, therefore, been questioned. This study attempted to determine whether the ELP or IQ score would be the better predictor of performance on a learning task for 31 black and 32 white EMR children. The learning task was presented in a test-teach-test paradigm. Results suggest that the ELP did not correlate more highly with learning task performance than did the IQ score. However, the ELP may be more differentially sensitive to declassifying black children as retarded. The validity and the social consequences of the use of the IQ, ELP, and performance, after teaching, on the learning task for classification decisions also are discussed.

The use of response deprivation to increase the academic performance of EMR students.

This research was designed to evaluate the proposed advantages of response deprivation as the basis for establishing reinforcement schedules in applied settings. In Experiment 1, response deprivation was used to improve the cursive writing of six EMR children, using math as the contingent response. The results suggested that writing improved in schedules that produced response deprivation and when the children were given corrective feedback on their performances. In Experiment 2, reversibility of reinforcement was investigated in four EMR children working on math and writing tasks. The students were sequentially presented two reinforcement schedules that produced response deprivation; however, the instrumental and contingent responses were reversed from the first to the second. Consistent with the response deprivation view, the results indicated an increase in instrumental responding in both schedules, which suggests that reversibility of reinforcement can be achieved simply by changes in schedule requirements. In summary, the results of both experiments offered support for response deprivation as an alternative method of producing reinforcement in educational settings.

LDs' expressions of anxiety in terms of minor somatic complaints.

The prevalence of the minor somatic complaints for learning-disabled children (N = 130) was compared to that of two control groups: normal (N = 559) and EMR children (N = 69). The learning-disabled children demonstrated a significantly higher prevalence of complaints, but the extent of resulting absenteeism was lesser than that in regular schools. No significant differences was found in the prevalence of headaches and stomach-aches. Fatigue was more frequent for the learning-disabled group. Explanations of the phenomena in terms of the coping strategies of the learning-disabled children and an ecological model were suggested.

Training EMR children to solve missing minuend problems errorlessly: Acquisition, generalization, and maintenance

The present study evaluated an errorless procedure for teaching EMR students to solve missing minuend problems (i.e., missing number problems starting with a minus sign). The study consisted of two experiments, with two phases of training in each. The first phase was directed at establishing a nonnumerical, differentiated response to a prompt, the shape of which was gradually transformed to make the discriminative stimulus. The second phase was designed (a) to extend the control of this stimulus to the required numerical operations, and (b) to gradually eliminate the first trained nonnumerical components of the response chain and the experimental conditions (presence of the experimenter and immediate feedback) used for acquisition training. Five subjects participated in Experiment I, and four in Experiment II. The results indicated that seven subjects acquired the target skill in a nearly errorless fashion in 75 to 172 minutes of individual training time. The two other subjects required several programmatic alterations before completing the training. Their total training time was much longer, that is, 212 and 318 minutes, respectively. Moreover, the obtained findings revealed that whenever measured, the acquired skill transferred to similar, more advanced problems, and was maintained over periods ranging from several weeks to several months. The technical aspects are discussed in terms of the literature on stimulus control by prompts. Attention is also given to the educational relevance of the acquired skill.

Effect of peer presence on psychomotor measures with EMR children.

Effect of peer presence on psychomotor measures with EMR children.

Intrinsic Resistance Training of EMR Children in Hypothetical Temptation to Steal Situations

A study reported by Haines and Jackson (1980) using a sample of 108 EMR Children and a pre-post test design, indicated that a direct instruction program (DIP) was significantly more effective than a general instruction program (GIP) in increasing the children's overall resistance to the temptation to steal in hypothetical dilemmas. The present study was designed in order to analyse the kind of reasoning the children used in the Haines and Jackson (1980) study to motivate their resistance responses. A further aspect of this paper involved a three month follow-up test on the DIP group. The major findings indicated that the DIP group used the qualitatively most advanced type of resistance, namely intrinsically motivated resistance responses, significantly more than the GIP group and no treatment control group on the behavioural measure of Jackson's Hypothetical Temptation to Steal Test (JHTST). The three month follow-up revealed that the gains made by the DIP group were maintained. The implications of the st...

Response deprivation, reinforcement, and instrumental academic performance in an EMR classroom

The critical conditions for reinforcement specified by the Premack principle and the response deprivation hypothesis were compared in an academic setting. Four EMR children served as subjects and on-task math and reading were the dependent variables. Each child was presented with two schedules in a counterbalanced fashion using a withdrawal design. One of these schedules contained the variable of response deprivation while the other did not. For one pair of children, the schedules satisfied the appropriate probability differential specified by the Premack principle while the other pair's schedules did not. The results indicated increases of instrumental responding for all of the children when response deprivation was present but never when it was absent from a schedule. These results provided a systematic replication of recent applied research supporting the response deprivation hypothesis and were contrary to much previous research supporting the Premack principle.

Developing arithmetic readiness of young EMR children: Piaget Applied

Developing arithmetic readiness of young EMR children: Piaget Applied

EMR-Children at Adult Age: Academic Achievement and Mental Ability

One of the purposes of special schools for EMR children is to furnish mentally retarded children with the necessary academic skills for coping with some of the problems which life presents in a modem industrial society. The author concludes, however, that such training is of limited value and that other types of training are needed.

Metamemory and the transfer of an interrogative strategy by EMR children

EMR children were taught to produce an interrogative strategy as an aid to paired-associate learning. Interrogative training was spread over four sessions with experimenter guidance gradually faded; training was followed by tests of long-term retention for the trained items, strategy maintenance, and generalization. Metamemory was assessed prior to training and following generalization. Analysis of recall demonstrated successful maintenance and generalization of the interrogative strategy; the quality of elaborations produced by the trained children predicted recall accuracy. Importantly, metamemory pretest measures for the interrogative trained children were related to strategy use at generalization. Metamemory posttest reliably predicted recall during training, maintenance, and generalization sessions and strategy use at maintenance. Interrogative training did not noticeably improve general aspects of metamemorial knowledge.

Cognitive processing, academic achievement, and WISC-R performance in EMR children.

Cognitive processing, academic achievement, and WISC-R performance in EMR children.

Home environment, family adjustment, and the development of mentally retarded children.

Abstract This study describes the relationships between home environment, family adjustment and the social competency of TMR and EMR children. The home environmental variables included parental behavior and attitude, psychosocial climate, and demographic and structural characteristics of the families. The measures of family adjustment included the mentally retarded child's impact on the family and the family's capacity to cope with mental retardation. The child characteristics were described in terms of adaptive and maladaptive behavior, psychological and social adjustment, and self-concept measures. Canonical correlation analysis revealed conceptual and statistical linkages between home environment, family adjustment, and the competency of mentally retarded children.

Cognitive processing, academic achievement, and WISC-R performance in EMR children.

Cognitive processing, academic achievement, and WISC-R performance in EMR children.

Reliability of the concept assessment kit-conservation for educable mentally retarded children

Internal consistency, alternate form, and stability coefficients for the CAK-C were obtained for a sample of 135 educable mentally retarded children. The internal consistency and alternate form coefficients appear to be acceptably high, and the stability coefficients, while appreciably lower, still suggest some degree of consistency over a year's time. The reliability of the CAK-C is judged to be satisfactory for EMR children.

II. The comparability of the WISC-R and WAIS among 16-year-old EMR children

Thirty 16-year-old EMR children were administered the WAIS and WISC-R in counterbalance order to determine the comparability of the two assessment instruments. The WAIS was found to yield significantly higher Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ scores. The comparisons of corresponding subtests indicate that all WAIS subtests were significantly higher than the WISC-R except Picture Completion. Correlations between corresponding WAIS and WISC-R IQ scales and subtests, however, were significant. The results suggest differences between the two instruments among children of subnormal intelligence, thus presenting the possibility that a child may be differentially classified based on the selection of the intelligence test.

The Effect of Music on Retention in a Paired-Associate Task with EMR Children

The Effect of Music on Retention in a Paired-Associate Task with EMR Children