NCJ Number
139330
Journal
Remedial and Special Education Volume: 6 Issue: 6 Dated: (November/December 1985) Pages: 43-52
Date Published
1985
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study tested the basic reading and spelling skills of 55 male inmates of low literacy.
Abstract
A battery of 11 tasks was used to measure segmentation. Subjects were asked to produce one-syllable and two-syllable rhymes, judge rhymes, produce alliterating words, repeat an initial consonant in a spoken syllable, repeat a final consonant in a spoken syllable, add an initial consonant to a spoken syllable, monitor phonemes, locate phonemes, count syllables, and count segments. Reading and spelling strategies were measured with the tests devised by Baron (1979) and Treiman (1984). Decoding skills were measured with the Decoding Skills Test. IQ and short-term memory were measured with three subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Revised. Subjects were also asked to judge certain phonetic relationships. Compared with children at the same grade levels in reading, the men performed better on some tasks, but worse on those that required a knowledge of sound-spelling correspondences; here they resembled children who were poor readers. The men were unexpectedly uniform in lacking segmentation and decoding skills. Some disabilities in reading and spelling apparently result from a lack of specific skills in perception, memory, and speech analysis. Improvement can only occur through the teaching of these skills. 12 tables, 3 notes, and 31 references