Children suffering from cerebral palsy are commonly handicapped in learning arithmetical skills. A part of the handicap is the direct result of lesions within the central nervous system. But the particular style of teaching also presents a variable that may well be of greater than usual importance for a handicapped child. Programmed instruction for cerebral palsied children would seem to have certain obvious advantages when continuity of attendance is interrupted or in classes with wide ranges of intellectual capacity, situations that are particular problems in schools for physically handicapped children.
The author, who is tutor and lecturer in the education of physically handicapped children, Department of Child Development, Institute of Education, University of London, recognized that, before any general recommendation that programmed instruction might be an aid to the solution of such difficulties, solid research was needed to show if (1) cerebral palsied children can be taught by programmed instruction,