Computer-based spelling remediation for dyslexic ... - CiteSeerX

Computer-based spelling remediation for dyslexic children using the Selfspell environment

Roderick I. Nicolson and Angela J. Fawcett

Department of Psychology University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 2TN

To appear in In R. Groner, R. Kaufmann-Hayoz and S.F. Wright (Eds.) Reading and Reading Disorders: International Perspectives. North Holland/Elsevier.

Summary For dyslexic children spelling is usually an even more severe problem than reading, so much so that Frith (1985) has suggested that spelling problems reflect a fundamental disability of dyslexic children inthe acquisition of the ‘alphabetical’ stage in reading. Recent multimedia environments on personal computers permit the construction of spelling support programs which are able to use synthesised speech to communicate with the learner, thus offering the potential to provide adaptive and effective support for learning. This chapter describes the SelfSpell environment for dyslexic children which helps them to learn to spell their problem words. Selfspell is written in HyperCard on the Apple Macintosh microcomputer, using hypermedia techniques to encourage child-centred active learning. Two versions are available, with one in which the children are encouraged to enter rules to help them remember how to spell each word, and one in which a mastery learning technique is used. Evaluations of the effectiveness of the software indicated substantial improvements with either version in the spelling and motivation of two groups of dyslexic children, even for those children who were very severely disabled in spelling.

Spelling Environment

Introduction: Computers and Dyslexia Dyslexic children typically have greater problems in learning to spell than in learning to read. Furthermore, spelling problems appear more resistant to remediation than reading problems (Thomson, 1991). It is perhaps somewhat surprising, in view of the theoretical importance of spelling for evaluating existing frameworks for dyslexic deficits, that relatively little emphasis has been placed on comparative studies of remedial methods. This would be understandable if it could be assumed that any improvement in reading would naturally lead to a corresponding increment in spelling. However, rather to the contrary, development in reading and spelling, Frith (1985) argues, involves a reciprocal interaction, in which the attainment of the alphabetic stage in spelling must precede its acquisition in reading. The alphabetic stage is that in which the correspondences between letters and their sounds are exploited both for decoding printed words (reading) and for analysing spoken words into their written equivalents (writing). Frith (1985) suggests that the alphabetic stage represents a bottleneck for dyslexic children in both reading and spelling, preventing their smooth transition to the mature orthographic stage. The research reported here derives from a feeling of guilt, in that for some years we had been helped in our theoretical research by a dedicated panel of adolescent dyslexic children (see the chapter ‘Towards the Origins of Dyslexia’ in this volume), and we were keen to do something to help them with their problems. Discussions with the panel suggested that spelling remains a severe problem even for those who had successfully overcome the reading difficulties on which their original diagnosis was based. This chapter presents an overview of the SelfSpell hypermedia environment for spelling support, which representa a new and promising approach to this previously intractable problem. Two evaluation studies will then be outlined, demonstrating that this new approach can be effective and fun. The first study involved a child-centred rule-based approach to learning spellings with adolescent dyslexic children, and the second study compared the efficacy of rule based and mastery approaches with younger dyslexic children who had made little or no progress with spelling. The SelfSpell Environment Our dream was to create a supportive adaptive environment for dyslexic children which allows them to consolidate their basic reading, spelling and arithmetic skills either at school or in their own home, at their own rate, with their own ideas and under their own control. The problem was that although Computer Aided Learning programs have the potential to be of great value for 6/13/95

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Spelling Environment

dyslexic children, in terms of sustaining attention and increasing motivation, the limitations of early computer programs in their ability to interact with the user, meant that they were particularly ill-suited to the needs of dyslexics. Even the simplest commands, for example, demand a degree of reading ability beyond the reach of the average dyslexic child, and all input demands the use of the keyboard. Therefore, the potential advantages of computer use for the dyslexic could not be realised. However, recent major advances in educational technology with the advent of the Apple Macintosh computer have unleashed the full potential of this approach, in the process revolutionising the pedagogical environment. The most exciting development here has been the availability of hypermedia, which allows the integration of text, graphics and digitised speech into a magical package. For dyslexic children, in particular, using icons eases communication and ‘point and click’ techniques using the mouse free them from the low-level processing demands of the complex keyboard. For the first time, successful interaction with the computer is more than a dream. We designed the Selfspell program to capitalise on these recent technological advances, in particular to create an element of fun which is so often sadly lacking in learning for these children. Naturally enough, we wanted the program to be effective at remedying the spelling errors of the children, and we therefore built in immediate feedback to prevent the perseveration of earlier mistakes. It was essential that the child should be actively involved throughout in making decisions, and we were keen to provide a range of techniques to suit the needs of different learning styles. In order to meet this specification, we developed the program within the Apple HyperCard environment, using a 1 Mbyte Macintosh Plus micro. The intention was that the child should be able to use the system unaided much of the time, but with initial support from a parent or teacher. Use of this SelfSpell prototype fell into four distinct phases: first a pencil and paper dictation. Next the child's passage was typed into the computer, and bug cards made for each error. Next the child went through the passage with help, identifying all the bugs, and for each one thinking up a rule to help them spell it right the next time. Finally, the child went through the passage fixing all the bugs, without human help but with support from the program which could either give a hint, a rule or ‘speak’ the correct spelling for a bug. Evaluation Study 1 Although pilot studies showed that dyslexic children interacted well with the program and derived considerable benefit from it, a more formal evaluation was necessary. The study is described in detail in Nicolson, Pickering and Fawcett (1991), and so an overall summary should suffice here.

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Spelling Environment

Participants The first evaluation study was undertaken using 15 of the worst spellers from our panel of 23 dyslexic children (mean chronological age 13.4, mean reading age 10.5, mean spelling age 8.6). None of them was familiar with use of the Apple Macintosh. It should be noted that all the children had been diagnosed as dyslexic several years previously (using the standard criterion of an 18 month or more deficit in reading age over chronological age; together with normal or above normal IQ and no primary emotional or neurological problems). By the time of the study several of the children were technically ‘remediated’ in terms of reading age (ie. their reading age was within 18 months of their chronological age). Nonetheless, even for the ‘remediated’ children the spelling performance was very poor. The standardised tests used were the Schonell test of single word reading and the Schonell test of regular spelling. Experimental Method For this first evaluation, a series of simple passages were constructed by the experimenters, matched to the reading ages of the participants. An appropriate passage was dictated to each child, and then typed into Hypercard by the experimenter and bug cards created for each error. Each child then completed three training sessions, identifying their bugs, and creating rules to help them remember the correct spelling. Finally, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the computer program, the original dictation was repeated in pencil and paper format one month after session 3. Results of the Evaluation After just three sessions on SelfSpell, the children were able to identify 80% of the bugs; to fix 70% of them immediately and to recall 50% of their rules. The knowledge of the spellings transferred to a pencil and paper dictation identical to the pretest, with 70% of bugs spelled correctly. The improvement overall may be attributed to the targeted words, with over twothirds of them spelled correctly, since the untargetted words did not improve overall. All these improvements in performance were highly statistically significant (t (14) = 5.58; p