The effect of fading to train b-d and p-q discrimination in children with specific learning disabilities

The present study was designed to assess the effectiveness of a stimulus programming technique, fading, in teaching visual discrimination and name association to the letters £-d and E-~· The Qs were first and second grade children with diagnosed learning disabilities, who displayed a high frequency of reversal errors, particularly to the letters £-£ and E-~· The study also provided a means of assessing the benefit of the fading technique in £s ability to read words and phrases, and discriminate £-~ and E-~ when they appear in the context of a nonsense syllable. The results indicated that the fading technique was responsible for the Qs' improvement in visual discrimination and name association of £-~ and E-s, when seen individually, and also in the context of nonsense syllables. However, the Ss made only minimal improvement in reading words and phrases containing £, £, £, and s, after fading training. It was hypothesized that the Ss' lack of progress in the reading task was due to their repeated practice in making the incorrect as well as the correct response to these words. When confusion errors are frequent, more practice on the incorrect response occurs, habits form, an~ this pattern of responding may become more resistant to change.