Comparison of Automated and Human Instruction for Developmentally Retarded Preschool Children

Abstract

Article Descriptorsautomated instruction; human instruction; discrimination training; developmental retardation; preschool classroom; preschool children More speculation than empirical data has been generated on the value automated instruction holds for special education. As automated technology advances, the possibilities for classroom instruction increase. The purpose of the present study was to compare automated instruction with human instruction to teach a visual discrimination.Twenty developmentally retarded preschool children were trained on two discriminations with automated instruction and two discriminations with human instruction. With trials to criterion as the dependent variable, the results showed human instruc tion significantly better than automated instruction (p = .0001). Nine children did reach criterion for both discriminations with automated instruction and therefore showed they could learn a discrimination without the necessity of human interaction. These results are discussed in terms of the value automated instruction may have for classroom instruction with the developmentally retarded student.

Evaluation of the assessment component of a system for shaping vocal behavior in severely speech-disabled individuals

“…Typically, the computer has been used as an aid to present training stimuli or deliver consequences during receptive training (e.g., [11][12][13]). Some exploratory work has been conducted using a speech recognition apparatus to train individual and multiple components of speech with deaf children [14][15][16].…”

“…(b) instruction can be individualized and self-paced; (c) a machine is unbiased and infinitely patient; and (d) automation enables the teacher to spend more time teaching other skills [1][2][3][4][5].…”