Effects of verbal and written labeling on selective attention of mildly retarded children.

Despite the fact that mentally retarded children have frequently been characterized as being deficient in selective attention, this characteristic has seldom been considered in the development of instructional media for the handicapped. To determine the influence of verbal and written labels on the selective attention to visual materials, retarded children were tested. Under treatment conditions, retarded and normal children located an object more quickly, looked at the object longer, and recognized more of the treatment objects on a recognition-memory task. Information regarding the learning characteristics of retarded children may be simply and effectively applied to development of materials.