Skip to main content

Dyslexia in Primary School: A New Platform for Identifying Reading Errors and Improving Reading Skills

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Research on e-Learning and ICT in Education

Abstract

The educational application “Evglotton” is designed by the Institute for Language and Speech Processing to improve the reading ability of children with dyslexia aged 8–13. This application could be used both as an additional diagnostic tool for reading and as an individualized program of rehabilitation. When it is used independently, the system monitors the learner’s progress continuously providing a full report of his performance. Moreover, it is possible for the user to enrich the system with additional texts using the admin page on the Internet. This pilot program was tested with 6 children in the inclusion class of the 5th Primary School of Kifissia during the period 2013–2014. The initial results were very encouraging, showing that the learners were highly motivated with a gradual improvement in their reading capacity. In addition, it allows the special educator to better organize his work. Consequently, he/she saves time and gains a better understanding of the learner’s reading capacity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information so that it is easier to use or remember (British English Dictionary and Thesaurus 2016).

  2. 2.

    Project co-financed by the Operational Program “Digital Convergence” (OPS 303630).

  3. 3.

    The electronic address of Evglotton for educators is http://evglotton.ilsp.gr/admin/ and for students is http://evglotton.ilsp.gr/.

  4. 4.

    The students’ names have been codified in alphabetical order in order to secure protection of subjects’ personal data.

References

  • Alexandrou, K. (1995). Learning disabilities. Athens: Dania. (in Greek).

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson-Inman, L., & Horney, M. A. (1997). Electronic books for secondary students. Journal of adolescent & adult literac, 40, 486–491.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson-Inman, L., & Horney, M. A. (2007). Supported e-text: Assistive technology through text transformations. Reading Research Quarterly, 42(1), 153–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Athanaselis, T., Bakamidis, S., Dologlou, I., Argyriou, E. N., & Symvonis, A. (2014). Making assistive reading tools user friendly: A new platform for Greek dyslexic students empowered by automatic speech recognition. Multimedia tools and applications, 68(3), 681–699.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biancarosa, G., & Griffiths, G. G. (2012). Technology tools to support reading in the digital age. The Future of Children, 22(2), 139–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Björklund, M. (2011). Dyslexic students: Success factors for support in a learning environment. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(5), 423–429.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boulware-Gooden, R., Carreker, S., Thornhill, A., & Joshi, R. (2007). Instruction of metacognitive strategies enhances reading comprehension and vocabulary achievement of third-grade students. The Reading Teacher, 61(1), 70–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • British Dyslexia Association. (2013). Dyslexia friendly schools pack. Technology Supplement.http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/files/Technology-for-Literacy-2013.pdf. Accessed 17 February 2014.

  • British English Dictionary & Thesaurus—Cambridge Dictionaries online (2016). Mind Map definition. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mindmap. Retrieved 2016-01-23. Comes from two instructional approaches.Annals of dyslexia60(1), 40–56.

  • DSM-5. (2013). APA DSM-5 development. Available from: http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/Specific%20Learning%20Disorder%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf (last accessed 27 January 2016).

  • Fleischer, L. S., Jenkins, J. R., & Pany, D. (1979). Effects on poor reader’s comprehension of training in rapid decoding. Reading Research Quarterly, 15, 30–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forgrave, K. E. (2002). Assistive technology: Empower students with learning disabilities. The Clearing House, 75(3), 122–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabrieli, J. D. (2009). Dyslexia: A new synergy between education and cognitive neuroscience. Science, 325(5938), 280–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galuschka, K., Ise, E., Krick, K., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2014). Effectiveness of treatment approaches for children and adolescents with reading disabilities: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS ONE, 9(2), e89900.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasparini, A., & Culen, A (2012). Tablet PCs-an assistive technology for students with reading difficulties? In ACHI 2012: The Fifth International Conference on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions (pp. 28–34).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hannus-Gullmets, B. (2014). Writing on a computer with auditory feed-back from synthetic speech synthesis as training for children with reading and writing difficulties. Responsible Research, 45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houliaros, D. (2008). Synthetic speech as a tool for students with dyslexia, speech problems and educational dimension. In Proceedings of 1st pan-hellenic educational conference in imathia, “digital material for the support of the work of the educator”. http://www.ekped.gr/praktika/gen/22_170k.swf. Accessed 17 Feb. 2014 (in Greek).

  • Institute for Language and Speech Processing/Athena Research Center (2012). Collection of texts and models of dyslexia 1.0. Athens (in Greek).

    Google Scholar 

  • Institute for Language and Speech Processing/Athena Research Center (2014). “Evglotton” instruction manual. http://evglotton.ilsp.gr/help/eygloton_user_manual.pdf_manual.pdf. Accessed 15 Mar. 2014 (in Greek), p. 16.

  • Korat, O. (2010). Reading electronic books as a support for vocabulary, story comprehension and word reading in kindergarten and first grade. Computers & Education, 55(1), 24–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leeds City Council. (2013). Complex needs service, dyslexia guidelines. http://www.leeds.gov.uk/docs/Dyslexia%20Guidelines%20April%202013.pdf. Accessed 17 February 2014.

  • Lewis, R. B. (1998). Assistive technology and reading disabilities: Today’s realities and tomorrow’s promises. Journal of learning disabilities, 31(1), 16–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenzi, C., Dumont, A., & Fullgrabe, C. (2000). Use of temporal envelope cues by children with developmental dyslexia. Journal of speech, language, and hearing research, 43(6), 1367–1379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lundberg, I. (1995). The computer as a tool of remediation in the education of students with reading disabilities: A theory based approach. Learning disabilities Quarterly, 18(2), 89–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markou, S. N. (1998). Dyslexia, left-handedness, motor skill, hyperactivity (pp. 15–44). Athens: Hellenic Letters (in Greek).

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, C. (1998). Supporting special needs with software. Teach Magazine, 6, 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mavrommati, D. (2004). Dyslexia: Nature and treatment of the problem (pp. 66–97,179-84). Athens: Hellenic Letters (in Greek).

    Google Scholar 

  • Meisinger, E. B., Bloom, J. S., & Hynd, G. W. (2010). Reading fluency: Implications for the assessment of children with reading disabilities. Annals of Dyslexia, 60(1), 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Reading Panel (US), National Institute of Child Health, & Human Development (US). (2000). Report of the national reading panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports of the subgroups. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. Accessed 20 February 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Odegard, T. N., et al. Brain connectivity in non-reading impaired children and children diagnosed with developmental dyslexia. Neuropsychologia 47(8) (2009): 1972–1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saine, N. L. (2010). On the rocky road of reading: Effects of computer-assisted reading intervention for at-risk children. Jyväskylä studies in education, psychology and social research 400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiavo, G., & Buson, V. (2014). Interactive e-Books to support reading skills in dyslexia. In at IBOOC2014-2nd Workshop on Interactive eBook for Children at IDC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneps, M. H., Thomson, J. M., Chen, C., Sonnert, G., & Pomplum, M. (2013). Readers are more effective than paper for some with dyslexia. PLoS ONE, 8(9), 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. J. (2013). Early identification and interventions for dyslexia: A contemporary view. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs: JORSEN13(1), 7–14. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-3802.2012.01262.x

  • Spear-Swerling, L., (2010). Patterns of reading disabilities across development. Handbook of research on reading disabilities, 149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sung, Y. T., Chang, K. E., & Huang, J. S. (2008). Improving children’s reading comprehension and use of strategies through computer-based strategy training. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(4), 1552–1571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torgesen, J. Κ., Waters, M., Cohen, A. & Torgesen, J. L. (1988). Improving Sight-Word Recognition Skills in LD Children: An Evaluation of Three Computer Program Variations. Learning Disability Quarterly, 11 (2), 125–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Herron, J., & Lindamood, P. (2010). Computer-assisted instruction to prevent early reading difficulties in students at risk for dyslexia: Outcomes from two instructional approaches. Annals of dyslexia, 60(1), 40–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tzouveli, P., Schmidt, A., Schneider, M., Symvonis, A., & Kollias, S. (2008, July). Adaptive reading assistance for the inclusion of students with dyslexia: The AGENT-DYSL approach. In Advanced Learning Technologies, 2008. ICALT’08. Eighth IEEE International Conference on (pp. 167–171). IEEE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vamvoukas, M. (2002). Introduction to research and methodology of child psychology. Athens: Grigoris. (in Greek).

    Google Scholar 

  • Zorzi, M., Barbiero, C., Facoetti, A., Lonciari, I., Carrozzi, M., Montico, M., & Ziegler, J. C. (2012). Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(28), 11455–11459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the researchers of ILSP, Dr. Dologlou, Y., Dr. Bakamidis, S., and Dr. Sidiropoulos, N. (ILSP, Xanthi Branch) because our discussions on operational issues regarding the platform and our broader cooperation contributed decisively to the configuration of the present study; also, thanks to Dr. Peggy Manouka for her linguistic assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eleni Chanioti .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

The Motivation for using Evglotton Questionnaire:

  1. 1.

    I prefer to read texts on the computer.

  2. 2.

    I like to use the program.

  3. 3.

    I use the program at school with my teacher.

  4. 4.

    I like watching my performance on reading via the Evglotton.

  5. 5.

    I use the program at home with my parents.

  6. 6.

    I like reading texts on the computer.

  7. 7.

    I use the program myself at home.

  8. 8.

    I believe that this program will help me in my difficulties.

  9. 9.

    I prefer to read texts in a book.

  10. 10.

    It is important for me to get reading awards from the program.

This 10-item questionnaire is designed to assess the motivation of students who participated in the study. Children answered each item on a 1 to 6 scale, with 1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = mostly, 5 = always, and 6 = I don’t know. For example, in the second question, all students (6) like use the program (Evglotton), 3 of them always, and the other mostly.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Chanioti, E. (2017). Dyslexia in Primary School: A New Platform for Identifying Reading Errors and Improving Reading Skills. In: Anastasiades, P., Zaranis, N. (eds) Research on e-Learning and ICT in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34127-9_19

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34127-9_19

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-34125-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-34127-9

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics