Enhancing vowel discrimination using constructed spelling.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Special Education
• Applied Behavior Analysis

Background:

• Medial-vowel errors are common challenges in early reading instruction.
• Individuals with intellectual disabilities may require specialized instructional programming to overcome reading difficulties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of instructional sequencing on word learning in an adult with intellectual disabilities.
• To identify effective strategies for remediating medial-vowel errors.

Main Methods:

• A computerized task was used to teach consonant-vowel-consonant word construction.
• Initial assessment identified differential accuracy across word groups based on vowel units.
• Targeted training and differential training with all five vowels were implemented.

Main Results:

• Training on a low-accuracy word group initially improved performance but negatively impacted an untrained, high-accuracy group.
• High accuracy on both word groups was achieved only after explicit instruction involving all five vowels presented in minimal pairs.
• Errors were predominantly located in the medial-vowel position.

Conclusions:

• The arrangement of examples and nonexamples is critical for developing stimulus control in learning.
• Explicitly teaching vowel contrasts is a promising strategy for remediating medial-vowel difficulties in reading instruction.
• Findings contribute to the development of effective instructional programming for individuals with intellectual disabilities.