"No Shoes; They Walked Away?": Effects of Enhancements on Learning and Using Blissymbols by Normal 3-Year-Old Children The present investigation studied the effects of enhancements on the learning, retention, transfer to the unlearned form, and use of Blissymbols in 40 normal 3-year-old children. The subjects, seen individually, learned either 12 standard Blissymbols (SBS) or the same 12 symbols in the enhanced form (EBS). The symbols were introduced ... Research Article
Research Article  |   February 01, 1995
"No Shoes; They Walked Away?": Effects of Enhancements on Learning and Using Blissymbols by Normal 3-Year-Old Children
Parimala Raghavendra and Macalyne Fristoe
 
Author Affiliations & Notes
  • Parimala Raghavendra
    Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm, Sweden
  • Macalyne Fristoe
    Purdue University West Lafayette, IN
  • Contact author: Macalyne Fristoe, PhD, Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences, Purdue University, 1353 Heavilon Hall B-13, West Lafayette, IN 47907–1353.
    Contact author: Macalyne Fristoe, PhD, Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences, Purdue University, 1353 Heavilon Hall B-13, West Lafayette, IN 47907–1353.×
  • Copyright © 1995 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Article Information
Development / Augmentative & Alternative Communication / Attention, Memory & Executive Functions / Language / Research Articles
Research Article   |   February 01, 1995
"No Shoes; They Walked Away?": Effects of Enhancements on Learning and Using Blissymbols by Normal 3-Year-Old Children
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, February 1995, Vol. 38, 174-186. doi:10.1044/jshr.3801.174
History: Received January 4, 1994 , Accepted August 4, 1994
 
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, February 1995, Vol. 38, 174-186. doi:10.1044/jshr.3801.174
History: Received January 4, 1994; Accepted August 4, 1994
Web of Science® Times Cited: 4

The present investigation studied the effects of enhancements on the learning, retention, transfer to the unlearned form, and use of Blissymbols in 40 normal 3-year-old children. The subjects, seen individually, learned either 12 standard Blissymbols (SBS) or the same 12 symbols in the enhanced form (EBS). The symbols were introduced with short explanations. The number of trials taken to reach >90% correct identification, the number of symbols selected appropriately to complete a communicative act, the number of symbols correctly identified a week after the acquisition phase was completed, and the number of symbols correctly identified in the untrained form of Blissymbols were determined. The results demonstrated that the subjects learned EBS faster than SBS, remembered more EBS than SBS in the retention task, did not differ in the communicative use of SBS and EBS, and were affected more negatively when presented with SBS than EBS in a task where the untrained form was presented. The results are discussed in terms of how very young children might benefit more from an illustration system such as EBS than from an orthographic system such as SBS.

Acknowledgments
This research is based on a dissertation completed at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, by the first author under the supervision of the second author. We extend our appreciation to the children who participated in the study and to their teachers and parents for their cooperation. Thanks are also extended to Mausumi Bose and Sayaji Hande for their assistance in statistical analysis. This research was supported in part by the ISAAC-Prentke Romich fellowship received by the first author and the David Ross grant from the Purdue Research Foundation to the second author. Parts of this paper were presented at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Seattle, 1990.
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