Evaluating New Approaches of Intervention in Reading Difficulties in Students with Dyslexia: The ilearnRW Software Application

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to increase knowledge and understanding on how the implementation of language content through specialized software, such as the “Integrated Intelligent Learning Environment for Reading and Writing-iLearnRW”, can enhance learning during intervention procedures to enhance reading skills for children with dyslexia.The iLearnRW software is a newly designed tool that makes use of innovative technology and provides individualized intervention through games that incorporate learning activities, addressing those language areas that are most challenging for children with dyslexia in a highly entertaining and motivating way. Individualized intervention is provided through an underlying user profile, which incorporates these language features and is constantly updated as the child uses the software playing games, presenting language material selected based on his difficulties and recording his progress. A group of 78 students (52 male, 26 female) diagnosed with dyslexia, aged between 9 and 11 years old, was assessed for phonological, morphological and vocabulary skills. The students logged in the iLearnRW software on a mean of 14.18 days over a six-month intervention. After the 6-month intervention, the students were assessed once again on the same skills so as to establish the tool’s effectiveness.The results’ analysis revealed the following: (i) there was a strong constructional linkage between the profile entries of the sample, the language content of the tasks of the screening test as well of the games and its effectiveness in the students’ performance; (ii) the students who received specific guidance by their teachers, obtained higher success rates in most of the games than the students without any guidance, and (iii) the quantity of the language content and the time playing were not correlated with the students’ performance in the software’s games.

Keywords: Digital technology, assistive computer software, dyslexia, learning environment