Prescriptive Teaching in Language Arts Remediation for Black Rural Elementary School Children

Abstract

Thirteen rural black elementary children participating within a school program which already included individualized language arts instruction were given intensive additional remedial exercises within the regular classroom. A comparable group of five children served as controls. Children in the treatment group received psycholinguistic remediation based upon ITPA scores, linguistic patterning exercises and sound blending training. Visual strengths were used to help bolster auditory weaknesses and student motivation was increased through the application of techniques of behavioral reinforcement. Total Psycholinguistic Age (ITPA) was significantly higher for the experimental group following the three months treatment program.