Comparison of the Effectiveness of Three Methods of Teaching Kanji Reading: Children With Intellectual Disabilities in an Elementary School Class for Children With Special Needs

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to compare three methods for teaching the reading of kanji characters in order to find out which method resulted in the best retention. The three methods used were (a) using printed materials, (b) a stimulus pairing procedure using simple picture stimuli with pictures depicting the meaning of the kanji, based on the reading of the kanji characters, and (c) a stimulus pairing procedure using picture stimuli depicting the situations described in the short sentences typically found in kanji workbooks. The latter two methods used tablet devices. The participants were two children with intellectual disabilities enrolled in an elementary school class for children with special needs. The results suggested that the children were most likely to remember the kanji readings when a stimulus pairing procedure was combined with short sentences.