Teaching Word Recognition to Disadvantaged Boys

Presented here are the results of an experiment to assess whether the use of teaching approaches consistent with the auditory or visual perceptual strengths of boys considered economically disadvantaged would facilitate their ability to learn and retain a list of unknown words. The sample of 105 subjects included one group of 20 boys demonstrating visual strengths and auditory weaknesses and another group of 20 boys with the opposite perceptual pattern. Subjects were taught to recognize 15 words by a visual or sight-word approach, and another set of 15 words by an auditory or phonic teaching method. Results failed to support the predicted interaction between perceptual aptitudes and teaching methods. Findings revealed, however, a trend toward more efficient learning under the visual teaching method. Results are related to other recent studies suggesting that disadvantaged children may learn more efficiently from a visual presentation of verbal material than from an auditory teaching method.