A computer-based method to improve the spelling of children with dyslexia

Abstract

In this paper we present a method which aims to improve the spelling of children with dyslexia through playful and targeted exercises. In contrast to previous approaches, our method does not use correct words or positive examples to follow, but presents the child a misspelled word as an exercise to solve. We created these training exercises on the basis of the linguistic knowledge extracted from the errors found in texts written by children with dyslexia. To test the effectiveness of this method in Spanish, we integrated the exercises in a game for iPad, DysEggxia (Piruletras in Spanish), and carried out a within-subject experiment. During eight weeks, 48 children played either DysEggxia or Word Search, which is another word game. We conducted tests and questionnaires at the beginning of the study, after four weeks when the games were switched, and at the end of the study. The children who played DysEggxia for four weeks in a row had significantly less writing errors in the tests that after playing Word Search for the same time. This provides evidence that error-based exercises presented in a tablet help children with dyslexia improve their spelling skills.

What Is Known About the Impact of Impairments on Information Seeking and Searching?

“…Other related research within the field of human–computer interaction (HCI) may be applied to explore these issues further, and there is a substantial amount of work to build on; for instance, guidelines on web accessibility and web readability (Miniukovich, Angeli, Sulpizio, & Venuti, ; Santana, Oliveira, Almeida, Cec, & Baranauskas, ; Venturini & Gena, ), using games to improve spelling skills (Rello, Bayarri, Otal, & Pielot, ), and including people with dyslexia in the development teams (González, ). Based on the existing research, it seems purposeful to explore these issues further, since spelling correction and string‐matching methods might reduce the impact of spelling errors in an information searching context.…”

Dytective: Diagnosing Risk of Dyslexia with a Game

“…Dytective uses linguistic and attentional exercises designed to distinguish populations with and without dyslexia. Empirical analyses show that errors made by people with dyslexia are different from the errors made by people without dyslexia [29] and, have been successfully used for dyslexia intervention [24]. Hence, the criteria for the linguistic exercises were built on the basis of an analysis of an existing resource of errors made by people with dyslexia [22].…”

Exercises for German-Speaking Children with Dyslexia

“…During eight weeks, the authors carried out a within-subject experiment with 48 children from 6 to 11 years old. Children who played Dyseggxia for four weeks in a row had significantly less writing errors in the tests than after playing the control condition for the same time [12]. Our game differs from previous work in being the first tool for German based on written dyslexic errors.…”

“…In the case of dyslexia, exercises on paper introduce an added difficulty for some students due to the fact that dysgraphia 2 is comorbid with dyslexia [7]. More recently, it was shown that computer games are a convenient medium to provide exercises in an engaging way to significantly improve the reading performance [10,11] and the spelling performance [12] of children with dyslexia. These methods cannot simply be extended to other languages because manifestations of dyslexia depend on the different orthographies of the languages [13].…”