Computer Aptitude: An Investigation of Differences Among Junior High Students with Learning Disabilities and Their Non-Learning-Disabled Peers

Abstract

Despite the growing utility of the computer as a creative and self-expressive medium, it is rarely accessible for such purposes in the classroom. The professional literature is replete with evidence that computer utilization among students with learning disabilities has been primarily a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) approach. This narrow view of learners as receptors suggests, among other things, that because of their exceptionalities, students with learning disabilities possess relatively fewer strengths than their non-learning-disabled peers and less aptitude for such complex and creative tasks as programming. The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to investigate differences in computer aptitude among 56 junior high school students with learning disabilities and 56 non-learning-disabled peers, and (b) to consider gender differences in computer aptitude among the entire sample population. Subjects in each group were administered the Computer Aptitude, Literacy, and Interest Profile (CALIP) (Poplin, Drew, & Gable, 1984), and their composite scores were compared. Results indicated no significant difference in scores earned by students with learning disabilities and those of their non-learning-disabled peers. Likewise, intergroup score comparison suggested that no relationship existed between gender and computer aptitude among students in this sample.