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

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

• Linda Fiddler. M.A.Bakersfield City School
  District, CA
• Yeunjoo Lee. Ph.D.California St. Univ.
  Bakersfield

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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).

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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?

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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.

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Participants

• 20 boys and 10 girls
• 11 first graders, 9 second graders, and 10 third
  graders.
• 18 English language learners.
• All were exposed to keyboarding prior to the
  study.

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Procedures

• Random 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.

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Dependent Variables

• Standard 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.

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Standard Scores on KTEA
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Percentage of the Occurrences of Phonemic
Awareness
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Percentage of Inappropriate Capital Use
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Percentage of Inappropriate Reversal Use
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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.

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• 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.

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