Training in Information Selection for Communication

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Abstract
An analysis of communication difficulties experienced by Australian children of lower socio-economic status and/or immigrant background led to the development of a program aimed at helping children in the age range 8–12 years develop linguistic selection rules necessary for effective information transfer and processing. The tasks were designed so that children were required to communicate through an opaque partition and, in turn, take the role of speaker and listener in communicating information about especially designed sets of objects and constructions. Evaluation of the materials and procedures was carried out in two metropolitan schools using a set of pretests and posttests. It was concluded that use of the materials for a period of one half day per week for nine weeks resulted in substantial gains, when compared with control groups, at two grade levels, in the children's encoding skills.