E-learning-based Treatment of Dyslexia: Methodology, Structure, and Pilot Trials

Despite a long history of scientific studies dyslexia remains extremely dramatic educational and social problem. An inability to learn and automatize phonological recoding and word-decoding skills is recognized as one of the core mechanisms of dyslexia. Among the remedial reading instruction methodologies, two fundamentally different strategies are usually applied: 1) to ease the basic instructions and supplement them by bootstrapping exercises (for example, to apply the basic strategy approach), 2) to apply the alternative strategy for syllable-blending and word-decoding. The former strategy prevails in the most countries, while the latter one is extremely rare. Thus, in the framework of previous investigations, the new model of reading skill development was built. According to a semi-global approach, a child moves from small working units of reading (WUR) to the large ones while learning to read (Kornev 2018). When the WUR is automated, its recognition becomes quite effortless and takes approximately the same time as for recognition of one letter. The WURs in Russian orthography vary in their complexity, from one letter to bigram, trigram, and larger units. The given methodology enables a child for acquiring syllable-reading skills directly by establishing associations between the graphic syllable and the phonologic syllable. The modern digital technologies may enrich remedial methodologies making them more complex, flexible, entertaining, and accessible. However, we were not able to find, among various apps, any designed for the struggling readers and based on the alternative strategies. Thus, we aimed at developing a digital application that would provide alternative and easier way to reading acquisition for the reading-disabled children. As a result, the Web-based learning tool Slogy (WEBLETS) was developed for the remedial treatment of Russian-speaking children with dyslexia. In the current paper, we present its architecture, methodological background, and the first results of its piloting in poor readers with learning disability. The main requirement for the WEBLETS, as the remedial treatment tool, was as high as possible accessibility for children which cannot master reading skills. Thus, five main elements of the accessibility were considered: a) an adaptive system of exercises, b) game elements, c) accessible content, d) learning environment that provides an opportunity to develop the psychological prerequisites and core reading skills, and e) accessible interfaces/environments and their dependency on the activity-domain of learning. The architecture of the WEBLETS contains five modules: 1) the diagnostic module, 2) the content selection and presentation module, 3) the content library, 4) the feedback module, and 5) the gamification module. To test the WEBLETS for usability and the remedial treatment effect, the piloting study was carried out. Two groups of children were recruited to test the WEBLETS: 500 1st‒3rd Grade students took part in the usability trial (U-group) and 20 1st‒3rd Grade students with learning disability and reading disorder contained the experimental group for pilot testing the remedial value of the WEBLETS (R-group); mental retardation, hearing, and/or vision disorders were considered as exclusion criteria for each of the groups. The U-group used the WEBLETS at home during the 30 days; at the end of the testing course, parents provided their feedback via a survey. According to the parent survey analysis, the α-version of the WEBLETS considered as a user-friendly (90 % of respondents) and attractive (60 % of respondents) tool. The R-group attended a remedial treatment course (6 online lessons provided by the WEBLETS under a supervision of undergraduate speech pathologist and 15 online lessons at home). In the R-group, reading skills were assessed three times: 1) before the treatment course, 2) immediately after the treatment course, and 3) two months after the treatment. Results of the trial confirmed the WEBLETS may improve reading skills. Some of the participants moved on in the non-word (bigram and trigram) reading and the others jumped into the text reading. Although the effect in reading progress was expressed differently among the participants, the results confirmed that the implicit learning and an acquisition of the procedural knowledge helped children with reading disorder to enlarge their WUR.