TEACHING LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS ANALYTICAL PERCEPTION AND METACOGNITION STRATEGIES: RELATIONSHIPS TO READING AND SPELLING

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an analytical perception strategy training program and a metacognitive training program on the reading and spelling performance of preadolescent and early adolescent learning disabled students who were experiencing difficulty attending to graphemic detail.;It was hypothesized that the students receiving the analytical perception strategy training programs would demonstrate a significantly greater reduction in errors in graphemic detail and make significantly greater gains in reading, as measured by both comprehension and word recognition tests, than the students receiving the standard remedial programs.;It was also hypothesized that significant gains would be made in word recognition and spelling, with the analytical perception with metacognitive training group making the greatest gains, followed by the analytical perception training group without the metacognitive training, the standard remedial with metacognitive training group, and the standard remedial group without metacognitive training, in that order.;Results indicated that there was a significant reduction in graphemic detail errors for students receiving the analytical perception strategy training as compared to students receiving the standard remedial programs. No conclusion could be drawn with regard to reading and spelling achievement. Further research may indicate whether reduction in graphemic detail errors generalizes to reading and spelling gains.;Four programs were utilized: an analytical perception strategy training program, an analytical perception strategy training program in conjunction with a metacognitive training program, a standard remedial (phonics based) program, and a standard remedial program in conjunction with a metacognitive training program. A fifth group of students not experiencing difficulty attending to graphemic detail served as a non-treatment contrast group.;An analysis of the descriptive data obtained from pre and post questionnaires revealed that metacognitive training increased students' awareness of strategies used in reading and spelling. It did not seem to be beneficial in improving their ability to evaluate their performance.;This study provides support for the direct teaching of analytical perception strategies to reduce graphemic detail errors made by the large subgroups of preadolescent and early adolescent learning disabled students who experience difficulty attending to letter and word features.