Increasing Prose Recall of Learning Disabled and Reading Disabled Students Via Spatial Organizers

Sixty-eight learning disabled and reading disabled junior high school-aged youths participated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, learners were required to study either a spatially organized illustration or a randomized (list format) illustration prior to hearing a related prose passage. Illustrations contained both mimetic (representational) symbols and referent labels. In Experiment 2, learners were required to study either spatially organized illustrations with or without mimetic symbols or randomized illustrations with or without mimetic symbols. All students were asked to recall the passage information and reconstruct the illustration. Results from both experiments indicated that spatially organized illustrations facilitated recall of related prose content and that the mimetic symbol illustration groups outperformed the labels groups. Results are discussed in terms of instructional variables for mildly handicapped youths.