Literature Review on Using Technology to Teach Decoding Skills

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This article is an excerpt from the LD@school learning module Technology for All: Supporting Students with LDs by Integrating Technology into Classroom Instruction. Click here to access this module .

The act ofreading simultaneously draws on many different processes: a reader must decode words, know what they mean, understand words when they are strung together in sentences, understand the use of pronouns, make connections between ideas using relationship markers, create mental pictures, make inferences, sum up information, and and then forth.

The right technological tools can make a significant difference to students who struggle with word recognition as well every bit reading comprehension.

Word Recognition

The power to read develops over many years. At the main level, students learn give-and-take recognition, a skill that ofttimes poses a great challenge to students with LDs. Difficulties with word recognition, in turn, tend to cause problems with the other processes required for constructive reading.

It is important to note, notwithstanding, that difficulties with word recognition but touch on processes related to written language. If a student with this claiming were to hear a story read to them, the processes required for comprehension of this verbal text would not exist impaired.

At that place are many technological tools that can support students with difficulties in word recognition.

Click here to access the Reading Rockets webpage nearly their recommended literacy apps.

Reading Comprehension

Afterwards, comprehension becomes the key focus of reading educational activity. Educators must back up students in the post-obit means:

• Provide students with a variety of reading material and media
• Develop their agreement of literary devices
• Model comprehension strategies

The following sections present technological tools that support these reading goals.

Text-to-speech

Text-to-speech communication software can read aloud digital or printed text; this is beneficial as students are more likely to understand text when unfamiliar words are read to them (MacArthur, Ferreti, Okolo, & Cavalier, 2001). Text-to-speech tin take a positive effect on: decoding and give-and-take recognition (Raskind & Higgins, 1999), reading fluency, and reading comprehension (Izzo, Yurick, & McArrell, 2009; Montali & Lewandowski, 1996; Stodden, Roberts, Takahishi, Park, & Stodden, 2012). Text-to-speech software can exist especially helpful for students who retain more than information through listening than reading. This software tin can assist students with monitoring and revising their typed work, equally hearing the text read aloud may assist students in catching grammatical errors that may have otherwise gone unnoticed (Raskind & Higgins, 1995; Rao, Dowrick, Yuen, & Boisvert, 2009; Zhang, 2000). After reviewing the literature, Strangman and Dalton (2005) reported that the use of text-to-speech software tin improve students' sight reading and decoding abilities. In add-on, text-to-speech software can meliorate the reading comprehension of individuals with specific deficits in phonological processing (difficulty hearing alphabetic character-sounds) every bit students can learn to decode new words when they are highlighted equally they are read aloud (Fasting & Halaas Lyster, 2005; Holmes & Silvestri, 2009).

Examples of Text-to-Oral communication Software:

• Read&Write (for Google Chrome, Windows PCs, iPad, Macs)
• Balabolka
• Kurzweil 3000 – firefly

Click hither to admission the handoutWhen I use Text-to-Speech (PDF).

Digital Texts

Twenty-first century readers must be able to comprehend many different types of texts, such as comic strips, fairy tales, news, informational documents, and many more. Some texts are similar in digital and print forms, but others are available but through the use of technology. For instance, tweeting and blogging are texts that at present play a office in many of our daily lives.

Click here to access the articleTweeting and Blogging in the Classroom: Leveling the Playing Field for Students with Learning Disabilities.

Digital texts profoundly facilitate the task of differentiating instruction. Students are able to apply accessibility functions to customize their settings (font size, spacing, colour contrast, bolding, etc.), which frees up cognitive load for comprehension.

Furthermore, most digital texts include features that help students to ameliorate sympathize the texts. For example, many sites have a card or table of contents that remains visible on the screen, which helps readers understand the structure and main ideas of the text.

Finally, hyperlinked text helps students recoup for a weak vocabulary and admission further information on concepts for which they have footling prior noesis.

Visual Learning Software

Visual learning software, such as graphic organizers and mind maps, is another indispensable tool to develop students' reading comprehension skills. Information technology can be used to illustrate unlike text structures (narrative, descriptive, argumentative, etc.), and it helps students place the nearly of import elements of the text they are reading, equally well every bit see an overview of the entire text.

In a unlike setting, when students "read to larn", visual learning software helps to reduce the brunt on working memory and to display the ideas in a unlike way to better depict connections betwixt elements of the text past categorizing them or by linking supporting bear witness to key concepts.

Click here to access the articleAll Students can Read to Learn Science!.

Educators tin can as well model the utilize of visual learning software to demonstrate relationships amidst characters in a novel. These relationships, oft implicit in novels, become explicit and visual when visual learning software is used, which helps students amend understand these subtle connections every bit they read.

Explicit Teaching of Reading Strategies

Even when students use engineering to compensate for an area of weakness, it is crucial that they be able to do their other reading skills in order to encompass the text. Therefore, educators should explicitly teach reading strategies to all students.

Click here to access the PDF of the SQ3R reading comprehension strategy.

Reading is a difficult chore that draws on many cognitive processes at once, but with access to individualized instructional strategies and assistive technology, students with learning disabilities can ameliorate their skills in both word recognition and reading comprehension. Educators in the chief grades should focus on the improvement of word recognition, which may help to prevent futurity problems with the processes required for effective reading. In afterward grades, when comprehension becomes the key focus of reading, weak reading skills can be supplemented by assistive engineering science such as text-to-spoken language, digital texts, and visual learning software. Regardless of the intervention used, all students should be explicitly taught reading strategies that encourage them to apply contextual cues, focus on metacognition, ask questions, make connections, and aggrandize on what they have learned.

Additional Resources

Click here to access the answer to the questionHow can assistive technology be used in the classroom to support the acquisition of reading skills by students with LDs?.

Click here to access the resourceReading Rockets – Assistive Technology for Kids with Learning Disabilities: An Overview.

References:

Fasting, R. B., & Halaas Lyster, S. (2005). The effects of estimator technology in profitable the development of literacy in young struggling readers and spellers.European Journal of Special Needs Education, 20(1), 21-40. doi:10.1080/0885625042000319061

Holmes, A., & Silvestri, R. (2009).Text-to-voice technology in adult ancient sample with reading difficulties: Exam of the efficacy. Toronto, ON: Aboriginal Office of the Ministry of Education and Ministry building of Training, Colleges, and Universities.

Izzo, Grand., Yurick, A., & McArrell, B. (2009). Supported eText: Effects of text-to-speech on access and achievement for high school students with disabilities.Journal of Special Instruction Engineering science, 24, 9-xx.

MacArthur, C. A., Ferretti, R. P., Okolo, C. M., & Condescending, A. R. (2001). Technology applications for students with literacy problems: A disquisitional review.The Elementary Schoolhouse Journal, 101(3), 273-301. doi:10.1086/499669

Montali, J., & Lewandowski, L.  J. (1996). Bimodal reading: Benefits of a talking estimator for average and less skilled readers.Periodical of Learning Disabilities, 29, 271-279. doi:x.1177/002221949602900305

Rao, M., Dowrick, P., Yuen, J., & Boisvert, P. (2009). Writing in a multimedia environs: Pilot outcomes for high schoolhouse students in special teaching.Journal of Special Instruction Technology, 24, 27-38.

Raskind, One thousand. & Higgins, E. (1995). Furnishings of oral communication synthesis on the proofreading efficiency of postsecondary students with learning disabilities,Learning Inability Quarterly, eighteen,141-158. doi:10.2307/1511201

Raskind, M. & Higgins, E. (1999). Speaking to read: The effects of speech recognition technology on the reading and spelling functioning of children with learning disabilities.Annals of Dyslexia, 49, 251-281. doi:ten.1007/s11881-999-0026-9

Stodden, R. A., Roberts, Chiliad. D., Takahishi, One thousand., Park, H. J., & Stodden, N. J. (2012). The use of text-to-speech software to improve reading skills of high school struggling readers.Procedia Computer Science, 14,359-362. doi:ten.1016/j.procs.2012.ten.041

Strangman, N., & Dalton, B. (2005). Using technology to support struggling readers: A review of the inquiry. In D. Edyburn, K. Higgins, & R. Boone (Eds.),Handbook of special instruction technology inquiry and exercise(pp. 325-334). Whitefish Bay, WI: Knowledge by Design, Inc.

Zhang, Y. (2000). Technology and the writing skills of students with learning disabilities.Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 32,467-478.

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Source: https://www.ldatschool.ca/technology-for-reading/