Linda Fiddler. M.A.Bakersfield City School District, CA

Yeunjoo Lee. Ph.D.California St. Univ. Bakersfield

The Effects of Keyboarding to Increase Spelling Test Proficiency in Elementary Students with

Learning Disabilities

Keyboarding Instruction

“keyboarding is a psycho-motor skill that levels the playing field,” for children with learning disabilities (J. Hallow, 2001).

The keyboard serves as a significant aid because it removes the learners' need to reproduce the letters from memory. The letters are also represented in capitals, reducing the amount of symbols needed to be memorized, and removing the challenge of distinguishing between d, b, p, g and q (Henry, 1998).

Research Questions Will the use of keyboards increase the

performance of students with learning disabilities on a spelling test?

Will the students perform better on a keyboarding test than a paper-and-pencil test?

AlphaSmart ®

A simple, portable, low cost word processor

Allows to enter and edit text, then send it to any computer for formatting or directly to a printer.

Participants20 boys and 10 girls11 first graders, 9 second graders, and 10

third graders. 18 English language learners. All were exposed to keyboarding prior to

the study.

ProceduresRandom assignments.Group A: Keyboarding test group.Group B: Paper-and-pencil test group.Pre and Posttest. Identical instruction for both groups. Students used Alphasmart® for various

reading, writing, and math activities.

Dependent VariablesStandard scores on Kaufman Test of

Educational Achievement Brief Forms(Kaufman & Kaufman, 1985)

Capital use and reversal of letters: words that contain b, d, p, and q.

Phonemic Awareness: the occurrence of correct phonemes in the initial, medial and final position.

Standard Scores on KTEA

Percentage of the Occurrences of Phonemic Awareness

Percentage of Inappropriate Capital Use

Percentage of Inappropriate Reversal Use

Discussion Students with learning disabilities perform

better when given a keyboard.

Students in the keyboarding group reduced the errors in reversals and capital use while students in the paper-and-pencil group increased the errors on the posttest.

Students with more experience with keyboards performed better than the ones with less experience.

Phonemic awareness improved by using keyboards. Participants that had poor phonemic awareness on the pretest significantly improved in the area of phonemic awareness on the posttest.

Providing accommodations (e.g., keyboards) for students with disabilities is critical to improve their performance.