Poor Readers—Good Learners: A Study of Dyslexic Readers Learning With and Without Text

Abstract

Our purpose was to examine how high-achieving dyslexic readers compensated for their poor decoding skills both during independent learning from text and in the broader learning context of home and school. The participants were 8 Norwegian junior high school students who had performed well in school despite diagnosed difficulties with single word decoding and phonological processing. Through a combination of quantitative reading and questionnaire data and qualitative research interviewing, it was found that most of the students seemed to use comprehension strategies effectively during text learning to compensate for their word-level difficulties. Additionally, the participants drew on a variety of personal, social, and technological resources to compensate for their poor decoding skills when learning at home and school.