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Effects of the dyslexic version of the typewriting course TypeTopia on reading skills of dyslexic children
Dam, E. (2014) Effects of the dyslexic version of the typewriting course TypeTopia on reading skills of dyslexic children.
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| Abstract: | This research describes an experiment on the question whether dyslexic children can improve their reading skills by participating in the dyslexia version of the typewriting course TypeTopia. The literature shows that there is only little knowledge about the relation between reading and writing, of which Graham and Hebert (2010) indicate that writing is an often-overlooked tool to enhance reading. Even though Francken (2013) and Hopman (2014) are convinced that especially handwriting has a positive influence on reading, because of the special motor program that will be stored in the memory, typewriting has potential (Van Daal, Van der Leij, & Geervliet-Van der Hart, 1989). In the first chapter of this report the theoretical framework will be described. The phases a child goes through during reading education, the disorder dyslexia and the different reading deficits are defined. After this, the possibilities for reading remediation and the link between reading remediation and typewriting will be explained. Furthermore, the description of the relevance of the research will be elaborated, ending with the research question. After the theoretical framework the second chapter contains a description of the intervention; the dyslexia version of the typewriting course TypeTopia. The curriculum of the typewriting course will be elaborated and the time span of this study will be shown. The method section explains the methodological choices of the research. The study follows an experimental design with two groups: an experimental and a control group. The dyslexic participants (N=49), randomly assigned to one of the conditions, will be tested both on cognitive achievement and the attitude towards reading. The cognitive achievement will be measured by two pre- and posttests, the CB&WL and the Klepel, which measured the reading achievement and the attitude measures which have been studied with a questionnaire. In chapter 4 the results section of the outcomes of both the pre- and posttests and the questionnaire are shown. The sampling characteristics are listed and the effects on the pre- and posttests are displayed. The results show that four out of the eight outcomes show significant differences in favor of the experimental group, of which the caveat has to be made that this is without the Bonferroni correction of multiple testing. No significant differences could be found with the questionnaires. Finally, the conclusions are drawn and the outcomes are discussed. First of all, it must be stressed that the present study fails to provide compelling evidence for an effect on any of the cognitive tests included in this research. On the other hand, the chance to find this many significant results (without the Bonferroni correction) is less than 0.04% .This suggest that the dyslexia version of typewriting course TypeTopia, could be a remediation tool for dyslexic children, but definite conclusions would require further research (on a larger scale). The attitude towards reading did not change due to the intervention, also an improvement of the reading achievement was not perceived. The children might probably need more time to experience better reading performance. For both cognitive achievement and the attitude towards reading, further research is necessary to confirm or refute the current theories. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 81 education, teaching |
| Programme: | Educational Science and Technology MSc (60023) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/68409 |
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