Individualized Korean Phonics Intervention for 1st and 2nd Graders at Risk of Developmental Dyslexia

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Objectives: This study investigated word decoding abilities of 1st graders with Developmental dyslexia according to the level of decoding difficulty, meaning availability, word and syllable structure.Methods: Twenty Korean 1st graders with developmental dyslexia participated in 40 word-reading tasks individually. All of them had severe decoding difficulties, even with normal listening comprehension (KORLA; Pae et al., 2015) and intelligence (K-CTONI-2; Park, 2014). The group differences by decoding difficulties were compared considering the meaning of words, the number of syllable-final graphemes, and the position of each grapheme in a syllable.Results: Both the severe and less-severe group in Korean word-decoding difficulties revealed the gaps between word reading and nonword reading. Both groups had decoding difficulties when a word had syllable-final graphemes, while the severe group had even lower performances in word readings with 2 syllable-final graphemes. Both groups showed similar performances in reading syllable-initial graphemes while the severe group had lower performances both in reading syllable-medial vowel graphemes and syllable-final consonant graphemes compared to the less-severe group.Conclusion: Korean 1st graders with developmental dyslexia seemed to be in urgent need of decoding support considering word and syllable structure. Triggering the non-lexical route with non-words considering the grain size of syllable-medial vowel graphemes and syllable-final graphemes would facilitate word decoding abilities of severely dyslexic Korean children.

Word Decoding Abilities of 1st Graders with Developmental Dyslexia Considering Reading Severity and Word and Syllable Structure

Yu¹,

Soyeong²

2021

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Spelling Development of Korean 1st Graders with and without Developmental Dyslexia

Kim,

Yu,

Lee

et al. 2024

Objectives: This study examined the word writing abilities of Korean 1st graders with and without developmental dyslexia (DD) considering meaning accessibility and the structure of a Korean syllable. Methods: Fifteen typically developing children (TD) and fifteen children with developmental dyslexia were assigned word writing tasks in the first and second semesters of the first year. The word writing task contains ten words and ten non-words containing forty syllable-initial and syllable-medial graphemes, and twenty-two syllable-final graphemes. The analysis of the results was conducted in grapheme units, and the accuracy for each word/nonword and the error rate for each structure of a syllable was determined. Results: The DD group showed significant growth in both words/nonwords writing accuracy by the second semester, and the error rates of syllable-initial, syllable-medial, and syllable-final graphemes significantly decreased from the first to the second semester for the DD group. The TD group showed no significant difference in word/non-words writing, and there was no significant difference in error rates according to the structure of a syllable. Both the DD and TD groups showed higher error rates in final graphemes in both the first and second semesters. Conclusion: The word writing abilities of the DD group showed significant growth between the first and second semesters but still had difficulties, particularly in the final grapheme writing. The TD group developed word writing first, and nonword writing was still in development. But final grapheme writing was difficult even for TD group. Follow-up studies are needed to closely observe the developmental processes comparing with decoding level matched TD children.

Longitudinal Observation of Text Reading Fluency in 1st Graders with and without Dyslexia

Yu,

Pae

2024

Objectives: Text reading fluency is an important skill for students using Korean which has a transparent orthography system. This study longitudinally observed text reading fluency in Korean first-grade students with and without dyslexia over 3 semesters. Methods: Forty children with dyslexia and forty typically developing children participated in the study. They were grouped based on their performance at the beginning of the second grade. All students exhibited normal levels of listening comprehension and nonverbal intelligence. Over the three semesters, participants read six texts at various decoding levels. We then analyzed the number of correctly read syllables per 10 seconds, text reading accuracy, and speed. Results: Both the dyslexia and typically developing group showed significant differences in the number of syllables read per 10 seconds at all time points. Text reading accuracy improved significantly from first to second semester of first grade for both the dyslexia and typically developing group. By first semester of second grade, students with dyslexia achieved approximately 80% accuracy. While dyslexic students’ reading speed significantly improved from second semester of first grade to the first semester of second grade, they remained slower than typically developing students. Typically developing students showed consistent improvements in reading speed across all time points. Conclusion: When intervening with lower-grade students with dyslexia in Korea, it’s crucial to conduct not only decoding but also text-level fluency activities. Providing individualized texts that are decodable for dyslexic children seems to be essential.