Lea Melchers, ‘…to be a child of one’s time- A study of childhood with special consideration of education and upbringing in Senden, Germany’. Järvenpää, autumn 2011. 79 pages, 2 appendices.

This is a report of a pilot study to determine whether the i.t.a. can serve as a remediation tool that would significantly improve the read-ing achievement level of sixth grade children with a severe reading disability. Using the Gray Oral Reading Test in a public elementary school, 11 boys and 3 girls were identified as reading at or below the second grade reading level. A prescribed training program with the i.t.a. was followed for WO school days. The Gray test was again administered and reading levels were found to be significantly improved. The implications of these results are summarized. Approximately 10 % of children with normal intelligence in the United States have varying degrees of reading difficulty. It is generally believed that 2/3 of these, or about 2-3 million children, have severe reading disabilities- and not all of them are dyslexic or brain-damaged (Smith 1968). Most seriously disabled readers- those read-ing three grade levels below their age level norm — have little self-confidence. They develop work habits which are not conducive to learn-ing and become conditioned to be failures. Though schools have scheduled these children for remediation in reading laboratories and in learning centers, many do not improve. It seems logical to assume that some of these

This thesis entitled: