A computerized treatment of dyslexia: Benefits from treating lexico-phonological processing problems

Abstract

Two hundred sixty-seven 10- to 14-year-old Dutch children with dyslexia were randomly assigned to one of two samples that received a treatment for reading and spelling difficulties. The treatment was computer-based and focused on learning to recognise and use the phonological and morphological structure of Dutch words. The inferential algorithmic basis of the program ensured that the instruction was highly structured. The present study examined the reliability of the effects of the treatment, and provided an evaluation of the attained levels of reading and spelling by relating them to normal levels. Both samples revealed large, generalized treatment effects on reading accuracy, reading rate, and spelling skills. Following the treatment, participants attained an average level of reading accuracy and spelling. The attained level of reading rate was comparable to the lower bound of the average range.

The Development of Reading Accuracy and Reading Rate during Treatment of Dyslexia

“…As can be seen from this table, participants made progress in both reading accuracy and reading rate during treatment. In conformity with previous studies (Tijms & Hoeks, 2005;Tijms et al, 2003), Wilcoxon matched pairs tests revealed clear improvements in both reading accuracy and reading rate from the start to the end of treatment (12 months of treatment sample: Z = −7.61, p < .001 for reading accuracy; Z = − 6.36, p < .001 for reading rate; 15 months of treatment sample: Z = −6.69, p < .001 for reading accuracy; Z = −6.55, p < .001 for reading rate). The effect sizes of standardised gains ranged from d = .81 to d = 1.49.…”

“…More specifically, the focus of this program is on the language units, the basic rules and the minimal heuristic knowledge needed to transform a spoken word into a correct orthographic word form (Schaap & Wielinga, 1979;Tijms, Hoeks, Paulussen-Hoogeboom, & Smolenaars, 2003). Previous studies showed that this treatment has clinically significant effects on the reading skills of individuals with dyslexia, although the treatment gains on reading accuracy were more pronounced than those on reading rate (Tijms & Hoeks, 2005;Tijms et al, 2003).…”

Computer‐based training with ortho‐phonological units in dyslexic children: new investigations

“…However, other authors (Lovett & Steinbach, 1997;Tijms & Hoeks, 2005;Tijms, Hoeks, Paulussen-Hoogeboom, & Smolenaars, 2003) have shown that the effectiveness of training does not decrease with increasing age. The current study extends these findings by showing that adolescents profit from training as much as elementary-school children do (Magnan & Ecalle, 2006;Magnan et al, 2004).…”

Behavioral and neurophysiological effects of morphological awareness training on spelling and reading

“…Lyster (2002) tested Norwegian children and showed that morphological awareness training was as effective as phonological training in improving reading skills, even at an early stage of reading development. In a Dutch training study, Tijms and Hoeks (2005) evaluated the effect of a computer-based training protocol which focused on phonological awareness, but additionally contained morphological components. The trained children improved in reading and spelling after the training, but it is not clear if this training effect can specifically be attributed to either the morphological or the phonological components of the training or to the combination of both.…”

“…There is a large body of evidence that phonological awareness-the ability to reflect on and manipulate phonological components of a language-plays a major role for reading and spelling acquisition (Bradley & Bryant, 1983;Lundberg, Frost, & Petersen, 1988) and there is a long tradition of intervention studies showing that phonological awareness training improves reading and spelling abilities (Nunes, Bryant, & Olsson, 2003;Tijms & Hoeks, 2005). Recent studies suggest that phonological awareness is not the only meta-linguistic ability that accounts for reading and spelling skills (e.g., Nagy, Berninger, & Abbott, 2006) which has resulted in growing numbers of studies focusing on the training of morphological awareness (Arnbak & Elbro, 2000;Berninger et al, 2008;Elbro & Arnbak, 1996;Lyster, 2002).…”