Enhancing the spelling performance of learning disabled students. Task variation does not increase the efficacy of directed rehearsal.

We investigated whether the efficacy of directed rehearsal could be enhanced by increasing a student's motivation through task variation. The efficacy of three conditions (directed rehearsal, directed rehearsal combined with task variation, and no-training control) on the spelling performance of four students with learning disabilities was compared in an alternating treatments design. Following each spelling error during the directed rehearsal condition, the teacher pronounced the word, the student pronounced the word, the teacher said aloud each letter of the word, and the student said aloud each letter of the word as he wrote the word correctly. This sequence was repeated five times. The same procedure was used during directed rehearsal plus task variation, except that previously learned words were alternately presented with new words. Results showed that although the two training conditions were more effective than no training, there was no difference between the two training procedures in terms of the cumulative number of words learned to criterion. This study showed that the addition of task variation to directed rehearsal does not increase the spelling proficiency of learning disabled students.