The Effect of Kinaesthetic Factors in the Development of Word Recognition in the Case of Non-Readers

Abstract

The cases reported in this paper are all those of children of normal mentality who have failed to learn to read after three or more years in the public schools. In all cases but one the vision was normal. The method described here was used only after the child had been given several weeks of individual instruction by recognized methods and had failed to make any improvement.Many children who have been brought to us as non-readers with individual instruction and proper motivation, learned to read quite easily by ordinary methods when they were given individual instruction and proper motivation; others proved to be mentally deficient. In five years we have found only seven cases of actual non-readers, even though children have been brought to us from all parts of the state. In all seven cases the presumption of mental deficiency had been made as the explanation of the reading failure. In all but one case, however, the intelligence quotient was found to be at least 100 by the Stanford Revision. METHOD 1. Learning first words.-The child was asked to tell some word he would like to learn. The word was written in large script on the blackboard or with crayola on cardboard. The child looked at the word, saying it over to himself and tracing it if he wished to do so. The tracing was done with the first two fingers of the right hand (or of the left hand if the child was left-handed) resting on the copy. It was never done in the air or with pencil. When the child was sure he knew the word, the copy was erased and he attempted to write the word, saying the syllables to himself as he wrote them. If he was unable to write the word correctly, the entire process was repeated until the word could be written without the copy. At no stage of the performance was he allowed to copy the word. After a few words had been learned in this way, 1 This paper is to be followed shortly by two others, giving the results of experiments with first grade children and of experiments in spelling. The bibliography will be published with the final paper. 355 Downloaded by [New York University] at 04:01 27 June 2016 356 JOURNAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Vol. 4, No.5 he was shown the word in print as well as in script. The next day he was shown the word in print only. If he failed to recognize it, it was written for him. If he still failed to recognize it, it was retaught as on the first presentation.2. Spontaneous sentences.-After the first few days the child began to ask for sentences instead of words. A sentence was then written and he learned the words comprising it, finally writing the entire sentence as many times as he wished-always from memory, never from copy.The sentences the child had requested were then printed on cardboard or were typewritten. These sentences and others, made of the same words, were read by the child. The same words were repeated in different sentences from day to day.3. Words in context or story selected by the child.-As soon as the child was able to make out simple sentences, he was taken to the library and allowed to sel...

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