Learning modalities and reading in kindergarten
Date
1971
Authors
Marson, Gervase
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Abstract
It was assumed that word recognition is a very important facet of the early reading process, and that children use their visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses in acquiring word recognition skills. It is not known which of these sensory channels (or modalities), or combination of them is most effective with individual children.
This study explored the possibility of using a group teaching technique to determine the modality that individual kindergarten children would find most effective in learning written words. The results of the technique were compared with the results of an individual teaching technique used with the same children.
An individual and a group Learning Methods Test based on the Mills Learning Methods Test were administered to twenty eight kindergarten children who had not received any formal reading lessons and could not read the written words used in the tests. Six different words were taught and tested by means of an immediate recall, and a twenty four hour delayed recall test, in one modality each day. These modalities were the visual, auditory, kinesthetic and a combination of the three. A period of two weeks elapsed between the administration of the group and the individual tests which were alternated between the two classes used in the study.
The scores of correct responses on the two tests were analyzed by computer to determine the correlation coefficients between the modalities and total words learned, and the T Test probabilities of the differences between the means for tests, modalities, sex, intelligence, and school class.
The analysis of results showed significant, but low, correlations between the two tests in all modalities, and total words learned except in the visual modality. The group test was able to determine eight children's most efficient learning modalities but these only corresponded with the individual test results in two cases. The highest individual scores in modalities suggested a much closer relationship between the two tests.
No significant relationships were shown between the most efficient modality and sex, intelligence or school class. The analysis of the differences between means, showed that in the auditory and visual modalities, and in total words learned, the boys, the low intelligence group, and to some extent one of the classes scored significantly higher on the individual than the group tests.
The results suggested that some children found some words easier to learn than others, which could have affected modality efficiency results in individual cases. In addition there was evidence of individual word recognition cues being used by some children which were different from the word recognition cues being taught.