EFFECTS OF MULTISENSORY TRAINING IN PERCEPTUAL LEARNING

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of multisensory input on the performance of learning disabled boys on a visual matching task. A thirty-item multiple-choice visual dot pattern matching task was given to 160 boys, ages 6 years through 8 years, 11 months, who were enrolled in special classes for children with learning problems. Of the four treatment groups (visual input only, visual plus tactile input, visual plus auditory input, visual plus auditory plus tactile input), the difference between the means of the visual only and visual-auditory and visual-auditory-tactile groups was significant at p <.05. The results suggest that on a perceptual task not related to reading or mathe-matics, the addition of input from tactile and auditory sensory modalities does not improve learning performance and, in certain combinations, actually interferes with such performance. Over the past thirty years, the quantity and quality of remedial techniques and curriculum materials used in special education have undergone rapid growth. One of the most popular of these techniques has been the multisensory approach to learning (Fernald