SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA USING DAISY

Abstract

Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology conducted the survey in 2012 and found that 4.5% of students in the regular classrooms of public schools, grade 1 to 9, have significant difficulties on reading and/or writing. Many of them have dyslexia which is a reading disorder while they have normal intelligence. Support of students with dyslexia in a regular classroom is a difficult issue but in many case we found that provision of educational materials in DAISY multimedia format is crucial to support those students. This article discusses an experimental support conducted at an elementary school in Nara prefecture in 2011-12. There were two students with reading disorder in a regular classroom of 5th grade. One of the students already enrolled in the resource room to be supported by a qualified teacher who were familiar with dyslexia and textbooks in DAISY format. The project provided the classroom with three laptop computers and text books in DAISY multimedia format. Students could read books with narration along with highlighted text, adjustable font size, narration speed and color contrast. Students with dyslexia read text books in DAISY format when their classmates are reading normal text book. DAISY version of questions for examination were used by those two students when their classmates were having examination printed on paper in the same classroom. When two students had questions printed on paper, their score was about 10 points out of 100 when average was 70. When they used DAISY version of examination, their score showed average or more. The result indicated that the students knew most of the answers but they couldn't read questions printed on paper. The methods of presentation of the questions profoundly impacted their score. The results of the experimental support suggests that the use of DAISY version of educational materials including questions for examinations dramatically improves the learning environment and confidence of students with reading disorder in a regular classroom.