The Effects of Visually Assisted Phonological Awareness Training on Text Reading

Abstract

Phonological awareness training is usually carried out in oral dialog. However, this style is not always effective when we consider cognitive characteristics of developmental dyslexia which frequently accompany with weakness of verbal memory or working memory. Thus we have proposed new training methods of phonological awareness which use visual images in addition to oral dialog, and developed training softwares. After training of 5-14 months, improvements were found in phonological awareness and text reading skills of four participants with developmental dyslexia. Consequently, it is suggested that our training methods for phonological awareness with visual images were effective in the training for children with difficulty in phonological awareness and text reading skills.