Specific Aspects of Prompting and Fading Procedures in Teaching Beginning Reading

Abstract

Three groups of kindergarten children received 4 training trials and a word-recognition test with 15 words in a beginning-reading task. There was a prompting-and-fading group with pictorial prompts which were gradually faded. There was a prompting-only group who received the same pictorial prompts but no fading. There was a no-prompting group, also, who were exposed to the printed words but no pictorial prompts. The prompting-and-fading and the prompting-only groups maintained few errors during training, while the no-prompting group showed high initial errors which gradually declined. The prompting-and-fading and the no-prompting groups performed similarly on word recognition after training and scored significantly higher than the prompting-only group. Lack of advantage in word-recognition skills for the prompting-and-fading group over the no-prompting group was discussed.

Pictures as Feedback in Single Word Learning

“…The techniques and manipulations employed both here and previously (e.g. McDowell, 1982;Saunders & Solman, 1984;Solman et al, 1992) have failed to demonstrate that the inclusion of pictures enhances single word learning. The best that a pictorial condition can achieve is a level of performance equivalent to that which can be achieved by the word-alone method.…”

“…These studies showed that the fading technique improved performance in comparison to a simultaneous presentation, but they either did not obtain a pictorial advantage (McDowell, 1968(McDowell, , 1982McDowell et al, 1969;Walsh & Lamberts, 1979) or failed to compare the prompting techniques with the word-alone technique (Corey & Shamow, 1972;Dorry, 1973Dorry, , 1976Dorry & Zeaman, 1975). In fact Walsh and Lamberts (1979) study found that the fading technique was less effective than the word-alone method as measured by post-tests on word identification, word recognition and picture-word matching.…”

“…Schallert, 1980;Levie & Lentz, 1982;Levin et al, 1987;Purnell & Solman, 1991), a conflicting result is obtained when it comes to learning the graphic representations of the written words. With few exceptions (Montare et al, 1977;Arlin et al, 1978Arlin et al, -1979, a substantial number of studies have demonstrated that acquisition of written words is more efficient when the 0144-3410/95/03/0227-18 © Carfax Publishing Ltd. Downloaded by [Universitaetsbibliothek Giessen] at 01:20 19 November 2014 written words are presented by themselves rather than in the company of extra contextual information, such as pictorial equivalents (Samuels, 1967(Samuels, , 1970Duell, 1968;McDowell et al, 1969;Ollila & Olson, 1972;Singer et al, 1973Singer et al, -1974Harzem et al, 1976;Dollinger & Walker, 1978;Lang & Solman 1979;Walsh & Lamberts, 1979;Singer, 1980;McDowell, 1982;Saunders & Solman, 1984;Solman, 1986;Singh & Solman, 1990;Solman et al, 1992;Wu & Solman, 1993).…”

“…Others investigated the fading technique, that is, gradually fading out the pictorial prompts, to redirect children's attention onto the written words (McDowell, 1968(McDowell, , 1982McDowell et al, 1969;Corey & Shamow, 1972;Dorry, 1973Dorry, , 1976Dorry & Zeaman, 1975;Walsh & Lamberts, 1979). These studies showed that the fading technique improved performance in comparison to a simultaneous presentation, but they either did not obtain a pictorial advantage (McDowell, 1968(McDowell, , 1982McDowell et al, 1969;Walsh & Lamberts, 1979) or failed to compare the prompting techniques with the word-alone technique (Corey & Shamow, 1972;Dorry, 1973Dorry, , 1976Dorry & Zeaman, 1975).…”

Effective use of pictures as extra stimulus prompts

“…However, with few exceptions (e.g., Arlin, Scott & Webster, 1978Montare, Elman & Cohen, 1977;Ollila & Olson, 1972). this simple paired-associated technique has been demonstrated to be detrimental to reading acquisition in that children's performance deteriorates in the presence of a simultaneously presented picture (Duell, 1968;Harzem, Lee & Miles, 1976;McDowell, 1982;Rusted & Coltheart, 1979;Samuels, 1967Samuels, , 1970Saunders & Solman, 1984;Singh & Solman, 1990;Solman, Singh & Kehoe, 1992;Willows, 1978aWillows, , 1978b.…”