Phonological Pairing as a Reading Aid for Retarded Children

Abstract

Thirty-three educable mentally retarded children were exposed to one of three modes of word presentation: phonologically paired words in the content-function order; phonologically paired words in the function-content order; serial list with words randomly assigned. The results of the investigation indicated that the demonstrated learning performance of mentally retarded children was significantly enhanced by the phonological pairing of words, phonological pairing in the content-function word order being superior to phonological pairing in the function-content word order. It was concluded that the incorporation of new words into the educable mentally retarded child's reading vocabulary can be enhanced by the phonological pairing of content and function words.