The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of a conditional
discrimination of syllables and phonological awareness activities on generalized
recombined reading in children with Cerebral Palsy. Three students with Cerebral Palsy
at the ages of 8, 9 and 12 years, assisted in the Center for Development in Assistive
Technology and Accessibility – NEDETA participated. The procedure consisted of six
phases: Phase I - Pre-training, Phase II - Pre-test, Phase III - Teaching, divided into two
stages (auditory-visual discrimination of syllables; phonological awareness activities),
Phase IV - test and teaching of arbitrary relations, Phase V - Equivalence relations tests,
and Phase VI – New word reading test. A notebook computer with specific software,
mouse and lifters adapted were used to collect data. The stimuli were syllables and
dictated and printed words and figures. Graphic animations were used as social
reinforcement. Responses that were different from the ones programmed produced a
time-out of approximately 2 seconds. The results indicate that there was equivalence
class formation by all participants. One participant presented reading with
understanding to five new words and the other two participants read with understanding
four new words. The need to develop more efficient learning procedures, providing and
ensuring the maintenance of a learning without errors, and also the generalization of
reading to natural environments of the child, was verified.
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