writing b and d without reversing them
10 year-old boy with learning disabilities
The experimenter first devised three lists of words to determine the number and types of reversals before intervention. The types of lists were as follows: 1)CVC list (consonant-vowel-consonant); 2)monosyllabic and polysyllabic list; and 3)single letters and numbers list. Using words from each list, the experimenter dictated words for the child to write. Each day of the week, the student received a different adaptation of the list. For each list, three steps were taken to remediate the problem. Phase 1 included no instructions or feedback after the student had written the words. Phase 2 used a teaching sequence that incorporated one-on-one instruction with repetitive practice. Phase 3 was introduced after the student reached a certain level of achievement. In this phase, he received no instruction or feedback in order to determine his overall improvement.
The words that the student wrote from each list were analyzed in terms of mean percent correct for each phase. By comparing the means from each phase, the experimenters were able to determine his actual percentage of improvement.
Smith, D. D., & Lovitt, T. C. (1973). The educational diagnosis and remediation of written b and d reversal problems: A case study. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 6, 356-363.
Melissa Register and Sandra Clarke, UVA
Reducing and modifying letter and number reversals.
Elementary school children from regular and special education classes who made reversals in copying, naming and dictation.
There were four experiments designed to modify reversals. Each involved modelling of correct and incorrect symbol formation and differential experimenter feedback following student responses. In the first two experiments, the instructor praised students for correct performance and informed them when a reversal occurred. In addition to this feedback procedure, in the third experiment the instructor modelled correct symbol formation before students began the exercise. The final experiment consisted of additional feedback on correct performance (i.e., charts), and the instructors imposed temporal delays between dictated letters and student responses.
Teachers can record the percentage of correct symbol formations during dictation and copying exercises.
Stromer, R. (1975). Modifying letter and number reversals in elementary school children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 8, 211.
Andrew Wiley, and Kelley Smith, UVA