Strategy Choices by Young Braille Readers

The hypotheses that in Braille learning (i) coding strategies change with reading level, and (ii) coding differs between normal and retarded readers were tested with oddity judgments by blind children. Experiment 1 showed that strategy choices varied with reading level only in association with mental age. By contrast, shape neglect and preference for phonological strategies were shown by retarded readers rather than by matched normal readers. Experiment 2 showed that under instructions to use given coding strategies the retarded were as accurate as normal readers. Accuracy for all forms of coding increased with reading level, but coding word shape was significantly less accurate than other forms of coding, and even correct coding of shape was no faster than semantic or phonological coding. It is concluded that (i) coding the shape of Braille words is unlikely to be a major factor in producing faster Braille reading, and (ii) retarded Braille readers differ from normal readers in their spontaneous choice of strategy rather than in the ability to use the relevant codes.