Title : Study of support for children with developmental dyslexia symptoms in Japanese and its effectiveness
Abstract:
There are three types of Japanese characters: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Of these, hiragana is said to be easier to be acquired because of its regularity and one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds (Uno et al., 2009). Therefore, early identification and support of hiragana stumbling problems in children with developmental dyslexia has the potential to improve their reading problems (Kaga, Inagaki, Tanaka and Horiguchi, 2005). On the other hand, the acquisition of special syllables of hiragana that do not have a one-to-one correspondence is delayed (Takeshita et al., 2017) and is often overlooked, which may lead to truancy due to knowledge being left behind (Inoue and Kuboshima, 2008). Testing and support are considered important to address this issue. In this study, 12 primary school boys and girls with clinical symptoms of developmental dyslexia were supported in reading and writing, mainly with hiragana flashcards, and their progress was investigated. Three tests were conducted to examine reading progress: Pretest, Posttest approximately four months after the Pretest, and a Follow test two months after the Posttest. The tasks consisted of four oral reading tests: a monosyllabic oral reading test, a significant word oral reading test, a nonsense word oral reading test and a single sentence oral reading test (Inagaki et al., 2010). The results showed that there was a significant difference in the number of reading errors and unreadable letters between the Pretest and Posttest in the monosyllabic oral reading test, the significant word oral reading test and the nonsense word oral reading test (P<.001), clearly improving accuracy. In the single-sentence oral reading test, there was a significant difference in the number of errors between the Posttest and Follow test (P<.001), confirming an improvement in accuracy. This clearly indicated that the improvement in reading progressed from small to large chunks.
Audience Take Away
- We can see the benefits in supporting children with developmental dyslexia.
- Understanding the order of acquisition in children with developmental dyslexia.
- Find out what support is available for children with developmental dyslexia in Japanese
