ATTUNED TEACHING: EFFECTIVENESS WITH CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
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Authors: Dr. John Poulsen
Keywords: Teaching, Affective Attunement, children with learning disabilities, Elementary education
Abstract: This study sheds light on underachievement by children with learning disabilities by examining attuned based teaching that was hypothesized to improve children's academic performance.
If greater frequency of affective attunement in classes can be connected to greater learning by children with learning disabilities compared to children without learning disabilities then this could be a way to narrow the achievement gap between children with learning disabilities compared to children without learning disabilities.
The three primary areas of concern that inform this discussion are affective attunement, drama in the Classroom, and children with learning disabilities. Affective attunement, as originally discussed by Stern (1985), is a special interpersonal connection between mothers and infants. It is centered in the affective domain.
Drama can be a form of teaching and learning in which participants are encouraged to learn in a holistic manner.
Children with learning disabilities often have weaknesses in reading and writing, but traditional teaching strategies focus upon these and assume that children can and want to learn through these two skills.
This study used quantitative analysis techniques to investigate the effect of drama instruction compared to non-drama instruction on grade four children. The subjects were 24 matched pairs, in which there was a child with learning disabilities and a child without learning disabilities. The 48 (24 matched pairs) children wrote the tests and engaged in the lessons within the context of their grade four class.
There were three sets of applicable data: frequency of affective attunement during the classes, academic performance (Post test scores minus pretest scores), and satisfaction surveys. T-tests, ANOVAs, and Pearson Correlations were used to analyze the raw data.
There was no support found for greater improvement in lesson gain scores nor greater satisfaction in drama-based teaching in children with learning disabilities compared to children without learning disabilities. That is, children with learning disabilities had greater academic improvement in the drama condition compared to the non-drama condition but their improvement was not greater than nor lesser than children without learning disabilities.