Audio-visual training in children with reading disabilities

Abstract

This study tested the effectiveness of audio-visual training in the discrimination of the phonetic feature of voicing on the recognition of written words by young children deemed to at risk of dyslexia (experiment 1) as well as on dyslexic children’s phonological skills (experiment 2). In addition, the third experiment studied the effectiveness of this word recognition training in dyslexic children who regularly used a computer at home. A traditional pre-test, training, post-test design including comparison groups (experimental vs. control) provided a base-line for assessing the training effects. In the three experiments the intervention group showed higher increases performances in phonological skills and phonological recoding than the control group did. Beyond providing evidence for the effectiveness of this audio-visual training, these results contribute to an understanding of the nature of reading difficulties and successful training. Globally, the results show the impact of the audio-visual training about voicing on performances of reading-disabled children. A such type of training leads children to connect print and phonology. Phonological representations could be specified by training which involves both phonological and orthographic units. The mapping between these two units could be easier in a computerized remedial program.