Effects of an Instructional Program Designed to Improve Attending Behaviors of Learning Disabled Students

Abstract

Third-grade learning disabled students (N = 72) were chosen from eight public schools and were assigned randomly to one of two treatment groups or a control group. The first treatment group received training in attending behaviors by a direct instruction method. The second group of students was exposed to modeling of the attending behaviors but received no other formal training. Immediately following the training session, students were administered three tasks that are commonly used as indexes of selective attention. The group receiving the instructional program performed significantly better on two of the three tasks. Results are discussed in terms of applied implications and future investigations.