Differential Diagnosis—Prescriptive Teaching: A Critical Appraisal

Abstract

The dominant instructional model within special education, Differential Diagnosis-Prescriptive Teaching, involves the assessment of psycholinguistic and perceptual motor abilities that are presumed necessary for learning basic academic skills. Based on the differential pattern of ability strengths and weaknesses resulting from this assessment, individual remedial prescriptions are prescribed.In this article five assumptions underlying this model are identified. Also presented is a comprehensive review of research related to each assumption. The findings seriously challenge the model's validity and suggest that continued advocacy of the model cannot be justified. Children do not appear to profit from current applications of Differential DiagnosisPrescriptive Teaching. DD-PT: A Critical Appraisal 2Differential Diagnosis-Prescriptive Teaching: A Critical AppraisalThe term "differential diagnosis" refers to the process of assessing the learning characteristics of a child so that instruction can be matched to individual learning needs (Kirk & Kirk, 1971, p. 12; Kirk, 1972, p. 7). Although, in theory, this could include any procedure that attempts to delineate a child's specific strengths and weaknesses (Ysseldyke & Salvia, 1974), it has traditionally referred to those practices that attempt to diagnose abilities that presumably are prerequisite for or underlie academic learning (Mann, 1971;Ysseldyke, 1973). Such general psychological processes include auditory abilities (e.g., auditory discrimination and memory), visual abilities (e.g., visual discrimination and spatial relationships), cross sensory perceptual abilities (e.g., auditory-visual integration) and psycholinguistic abilities (e.g., auditory sequential memory and verbal expression). According to this model, failure to master basic academic skills, such as reading, may be traced to impairments in one or more of these underlying processes or abilities. To illustrate, a child who experiences failure in school tasks such as spelling phonetically irregular words, answering sequence questions based on material read, or copying sentences, may be found to suffer from an impairment in a basic process such as visual sequential memory (the ability to order a series of items so as to match a previously given model). DD-PT: A Critical Appraisal 3The term "diagnostic-prescriptive teaching," often used in conjunction with Differential Diagnosis, refers to the practice of formulating instructional prescriptions on the basis of differential diagnostic results.These prescriptions generally take one of two forms. In one form differential diagnostic information is used to generate a program to directly remediate an underlying ability weakness. In a second form weak abilities are not remediated; rather, the focus is on academic targets, such as reading or math, for which instructional programs are devised that capitalize upon the child's pattern of underlying strengths and weaknesses, as identified in the course of diagnosis. An example of the former approach would be...

Comparison of the relationship between two measures of visual-motor coordination and academic achievement

“…Hartlage and Lucas (1976), in that the Koppitz and Beery tasks present generally higher correlations with the WISC-R than the WRAT, and in that correlations of the Koppitz and Beery tasks with the WRAT are not higher than those of Full Scale IQ with the WRAT. The correlations of both visual-motor tasks with the WRAT in the present sample are similar in magnitude to those reported by Hartlage and Lucas and generally exceed the .35 minimum recommended by Arter and Jenkins (1979). Table 3 presents the partial correlations of Beery and Koppitz scores with the WRAT, adjusting for the effect of WISC-R Full Scale IQ.…”

Advice about the Use of Learning Styles: A Major Myth in Education

“…One critique oflearning styles identified five different reviews on matching learning styles, spanning 14 years and examining over 90 studies (Stahl, 1999), and it failed to find empirical evidence that matching learning styles improves learning. One of those reviews (Arter & Jenkins, 1979) examined 14 studies and concluded that the use of remedial prescriptions based on differential patterns of ability strengths and weaknesses (so called Differential Diagnosis-Prescriptive Teaching) is an approach that cannot be justified, stating that "Children do not appear to profit from current applications of Differential Diagnosis-Prescriptive Teaching" (p. 517). They further stated, u •• .it is not surprising that DD-PT has not improved academic achievement, since most ability assessment devices have inadequate reliability and suspect validity" (p. 549).…”

Debunking the Matching Hypothesis of Learning Style Theorists in Hospitality Education

“…One of the first articles that led to skepticism of the existence of student learning styles was that published by Arter and Jenkins (1979), which pertained to those teaching in special education but had implications for all educators. The authors referred to the "term 'differential diagnosis' which Downloaded by [Texas A & M International University] at 22:20 14 August 2015 refers to the process of assessing the learning characteristics of a child so that instruction can be matched to individual learning needs" (p. 517).…”