Facilitating Reading Comprehension Through Spatial Skills Training

Abstract

Evidence from diverse areas of psychological and educational inquiry suggests that perceptual skills training might enhance reading performance. To test an application of this possibility, 120 lower SES adolescent school children, whose reading comprehension was 3 to 4 years behind that of their same-aged peers on a nationally normed reading test, were assigned randomly to one of three experimental conditions in a 6-week remedial reading program. One group received only remedial reading instruction; a second, reading instruction plus spatial skills training; and a third group served as an untreated control. Respondents’ gains on space relations and abstract reasoning skills (measured by the Differential Aptitude Tests [DAT]) and on four aspects of skilled reading (speed, accuracy, vocabulary, and comprehension) supported the hypothesis: Significant differences favoring the spatially trained respondents over the other two groups were observed on almost all measures. Correlational analyses suggested that lower level reading skills influenced later gains in comprehension.