Effect of Different Methods of Presenting Drawings to Intellectually Disabled Adolescents in an Associative Word-Learning Task

Abstract

Most individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) have difficulty learning languages. Several studies have reported that mental imagery can be a powerful tool for supporting word learning in individuals with ID. This study investigated the effect of presenting drawings in an associative word-learning task and assessed how memorization could be facilitated in adolescents with ID. In Study 1, 10 adolescents with ID and 30 normally developing children completed an associative word-learning task under articulatory-suppression and control conditions. The adolescents with ID tended to have more difficulty learning familiar word pairs than the children in fifth grade. In Study 2, five adolescents with ID participated; this procedure was similar to that of Study 1, except that two methods of presenting drawings were used before an associative word-learning task. The interactive means of presentation of the drawings facilitated memorization; thus, the interactive means of the presentation was more effective than the separate presentation. We suggested that drawings affect the activation of mental images to facilitate the memorization of word pairs.