Abstract:
Learning disability affects many learners in South Africa and its impact is exacerbated by environmental disadvantage. In a fast changing educational system within a framework of Outcomes-Based Education, where inclusion of learners from various cultures who face a wide variety of barriers to learning is a reality, the need for more accommodating teaching aids and techniques is pressing. Reading comprehension skills influence most aspects of school work, cognitively, emotionally and socially, and therefore learning support strategies to address reading difficulty are especially important. This research focused on visualization as a metacognitive reading comprehension technique for learning support to intermediate level learners with learning disabilities who suffer environmental deprivation. The aim was to help learners to develop and utilise their cognitive skills when reading by forming a mental picture of the text that is being read. Internalization and generalization of this technique was targeted. The communicative meaning of text, rather than fluent word recognition, was emphasized. Manifestations of learning disability, environmental deprivation, problems in reading comprehension and visualization as a "whole brain" approach to reading development were reviewed in the literature. In collaboration with a multicultural school for learners with epilepsy and learning disabilities, the visualization technique was formatively refined during ten sessions of practical implementation. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to assess behaviour and performance per learner. Clinical assessments verified the findings of the case studies.
