Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applied to dyslexia: literature review

ABSTRACT

The current paper aims to present an integrative literature review of scientific articles published in national and international journals, approaching the use of information and communication technology (ICT) such as computers, tablets, iPad’s, mobile phones, e-readers, virtual reality and virtual learning environments, applied to dyslexia. The database consists of scientific articles published between 2010 and 2015, from the following platforms: Science Direct/Elsevier, SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online, MedLine - Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval and Portal de Periódicos da CAPES. Scientific articles were selected, corresponding to 20 international (95.23%) papers and 1 national (4.77%) paper. The works considered in the present paper in general aim at the development and application of technological instruments that can minimize the difficulties by dyslexics in reading and writing learning. Due to shortage of articles published in Brazil, there is a need for more studies on this topic in view of the benefits of ICT within evaluation and intervention in dyslexia observed in international articles.

Keywords:
Dyslexia; Technology; Software

RESUMO

O objetivo deste estudo é apresentar uma revisão integrativa da literatura, contemplando artigos científicos publicados em periódicos nacionais e internacionais que abordam o uso das tecnologias da informação e da comunicação (TIC), tais como computador, tablets, iPads, mobile phones, e-readers, realidade virtual e ambiente virtual de aprendizagem, aplicadas à dislexia. A base de dados escolhida para este estudo foi constituída de artigos científicos publicados no período de 2010 a 2015, a partir das seguintes bases eletrônicas de dados: Science Direct/Elsevier, SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online, MedLine - Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval e o Portal de Periódicos da CAPES. Foram selecionados para este estudo 21 artigos científicos, sendo 20 (95,23%) artigos internacionais e um (4,77%) artigo nacional. Os trabalhos contemplados, no presente estudo, em geral, visam a construção e aplicação de instrumentos tecnológicos que possam vir a minimizar as dificuldades do disléxico no âmbito da aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita. Em meio à escassez de artigos publicados no Brasil, verifica-se a necessidade de mais estudos sobre essa temática, tendo em vista os benefícios das TIC no âmbito da avaliação e intervenção em dislexia constatados em artigos internacionais.

Descritores:
Dislexia; Tecnologia; Software

Introduction

Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder of neurological origin, characterized by difficulties with correct reading fluency and with the decoding and spelling ability, resulting from a deficit in the phonological component of the language¹.

According to DSM-IV-TR², the reading performance of the dyslexic as measured by standardized tests is markedly below the expected level considering the chronological age, intelligence quotient (IQ) and school level specific to the individual's age.

The characteristics of reading - both silent and oral - in those individuals are marked by distortions, substitutions or omissions in which slowness and errors in comprehension predominate².

The use of technological tools opens up new possibilities for stimulating the development of reading skills in children³. In recent years, the contribution of technology in the field of special educational needs has been recognized. There is growing interest in the inclusion of individuals with learning difficulties - especially dyslexia - in the educational environment⁴.

Technological resources have a positive effect on the performance of a reader's understanding³. Researchers have investigated the benefits of information technology to promote better reading skills^5-9 in dyslexics. In general, the results suggest that technological resources provide dyslexic individuals with better conditions for interaction and involvement in text reading and comprehension activities. The use of technological tools modernizes education, opening up more efficient teaching possibilities⁹.

In some research^10-13 the benefits of using computers to assist the learning of reading in children with dyslexia and learning difficulties were found. Computer-assisted instruction¹¹ shows great promise regarding the work on reading skills in school, ranging from word knowledge to metacognitive reading strategies. In addition, learning environments that use technological tools can contribute to help students assume greater autonomy over academic contents¹².

This study aims to carry out an integrative review of the literature on information and communication technologies (ICT) applied to dyslexia, based on scientific studies published in the last five years.

Methods

A search was made for national and international scientific articles dealing with the subject of information and communication technologies (ICT) applied to dyslexia in the electronic databases of Science Direct/Elsevier, SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online, MedLine - Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval and the Portal of Periodicals of CAPES.

In all electronic pages of the databases, the advanced search engine was used, adopting the following descriptors in Portuguese and their correspondents in English to search for the articles: ‘dislexia’ (dyslexia), ‘computador’ (computer), ‘tecnologia’ (technology) and software. The descriptor ‘dislexia’ (dyslexia) was initially used in isolation and then combined with the other descriptors in all the databases searched. As inclusion criteria, we considered complete articles published in the English, Portuguese and Spanish languages, published between 2010 and 2015. We selected the papers that addressed the topic of ICT applied to dyslexia for this review, observed from reading titles and abstracts. We excluded from this review: repeated articles in the databases; studies in which the objective was purely informative about dyslexia; researches that used ICT, such as "electronic storybooks" and "digital games", in children without dyslexia; researches whose subjects presented intellectual deficiency, and articles that presented software to evaluate the reading of subjects without dyslexia.

In the initial phase of data collection, 41 complete papers were selected, of which 30 (73.17%) had been published in international journals and 11 (26.83%) in national journals. The articles were classified in ascending order by year of publication, highlighting the name of the journal, author(s) and objectives. Of the 41 studies, 20 international scientific articles and 1 national article were considered for this study, respecting the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Data analysis consisted of the following steps: 1. distribution of articles published in international and national journals in which we found the subject ‘ICT (information and communication technologies) applied to dyslexia’ in the period 2010 to 2015 (Figure 1); 2. number of articles by journals in which the theme is observed, in the period from 2010 to 2015 (Figure 2); 3. number of scientific articles per year of publication, from 2010 to 2015 (Figure 3); 4. Distribution of scientific articles regarding the nature of the studies: Evaluation (E), Intervention (I) or Literature review (LR) (Figure 4); and 5. Characterization of the researches on the subject ‘Information and Communication Technologies applied to dyslexia’ in the period from 2010 to 2015 (Figure 5).

Figure 1:
Distribution of articles published in international and national journals where it is observed the subject ICT (information and communication technologies) applied to dyslexia in the period 2010 to 2015

Figure 2:
Number of articles by journals where there is the theme ICT (information and communication technologies) applied to dyslexia, from 2010 to 2015

Figure 3:
Number of scientific articles per year of publication, from 2010 to 2015

Figure 4:
Distribution of scientific articles regarding the nature of the studies: Evaluation (E), Intervention (I) or Literature review (LR)

Figure 5:
Characterization of the research on the subject of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) applied to dyslexia in the period from 2010 to 2015

Literature Review

The analysis of the results considered 21 scientific papers, being 20 (95.23%) international and 1 (4.77%) national (Figure 1). The 21 articles surveyed were published in the following countries: seven in the United States, seven in the Netherlands, two in the United Kingdom, two in England, one in Spain, one in Greece and one in Brazil.

From those findings, it can be suggested that national publications on ICT applied to dyslexia are still scarce. Some scholars⁵ believe that these surveys provide insight into which approaches and technologies are best suited to assist children with learning difficulties. The use of ICT in education seems to provide more interactive experiences, which can motivate children at an early age, attenuating the impacts of their own difficulties in the daily practice of reading and writing⁷.

As shown in Figure 2, the 21 scientific papers selected for the study were published in 14 international journals and one national journal.

Figure 3 shows the distribution of articles according to the year of publication, where it is possible to verify a higher concentration of publications in the years 2012 and 2014. Some studies on ICT applied to dyslexia^14-17 verified the applicability of interactive multimedia tools in dyslexic subjects and suggestions for future work. The functionality of software in other technological instruments, such as tablets, has been tested with adaptations to improve the performance of dyslexic children¹⁸.

The scientific articles selected for this research were distributed according to the nature of the study (Figure 4). They were classified in: Evaluation (E) - research where the evaluation of the applicability of ICT in dyslexic subjects is observed; Intervention (I) - research where ICT intervention is observed in subjects; Literature Review (LR) - where we observe studies that carried out a theoretical survey on ICTs applied to dyslexia.

In the four (19.05%) articles classified as being of evaluation (E) it was found that the information collected in questionnaires applied to teachers and/or parents allowed modifying and/or adapting the construction of technological products for children with dyslexia^9,14,16,19.

In a study classified as being of evaluation¹⁹, in addition to describing the functions of multimedia tools in the construction of technological products for dyslexic children, a concern was observed to identify the impression that children and teachers have about the use of ICT in learning to read and write.

The influence of letter font choice on reading materials for children with specific learning difficulties was described in a study⁹ with 150 children. The results presented reveal the benefits of an adequate choice of font in terms of speed and reading errors. The OpenDyslexic font²⁰ was created for dyslexics and has shown satisfactory results in reading tests.

The studies classified as intervention (I) of ICT applied to dyslexia accounted for 66.67% of the 21 scientific papers analyzed. It was seen that one of the recently published works in this category¹⁸ suggested interface design options for building a tablet game for children with learning difficulties. EasyLexia 2.0¹⁸ was developed from software tested on mobile phones, composed by activities of spelling, memory and mathematical problems for children with dyslexia⁷.

In an Intervention research conducted with dyslexic children²¹, phonological and morphological activities were associated with computer use, with positive effects on reading speed and orthographic skills when used early. It was also highlighted that the use of ICT can be useful in the early intervention of children with risk characteristics for learning disabilities.

In the studies that described the use of software^{3,5,8,10,11,13,17} and e-readers²², the effectiveness of technological tools to promote better reading performance in dyslexics was verified.

In a recent scientific article³, the effectiveness of pedagogical activities on iPads was investigated, increasing the applicability for children with other specific learning difficulties, such as Dysgraphia - specific disorder in writing graphemes.

In the results of the application of two technological instruments - Abracadabra (ABRA)⁵ and e-Pearl⁵ - benefits in letter-sound recognition, phonological awareness and reading comprehension have been described, also showing positive results in the case of children with poor attention and low reading performance. Children systematically submitted to the programs presented learning gains in the written language and better performance in the metacognitive reading skills.

In a study carried out with dyslexic children⁸ a computerized intervention program was described, structured with metaphonological activities of reading syllables, words and texts to promote better levels of reading fluency and reading comprehension. The use of the software allowed recording the successes and mistakes of the activities, and the execution time. For each child a table was generated to analyse their evolution and possible gains in the different levels: syllables, words and texts.

One study carried out with children with literacy difficulties, including dyslexia, presented positive results from the use of tablets to support reading and writing activities at school¹⁰.

The results of the use of software with phonological and multisensory resources, such as sound-letter correspondence and auditory strategies, were presented in a study with children with and without dyslexia¹¹, showing significant benefits in the orthographic performance of dyslexic children.

In an intervention study that aimed to promote phonological awareness and grapheophonemic correspondences in dyslexics using the Computerized Phonics Alphabetization software¹³, it was concluded that dyslexic children submitted to intervention sessions presented benefits in reading and writing skills, besides significant decrease in the execution time of the tests.

One intervention study described the use of a pedagogical application, APADYT¹⁷, aimed at assisting the pedagogical work of parents and teachers of children with special educational needs, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, attention deficit and/or hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cross laterality.

A study on the use of e-readers²² with children with dyslexia concluded that for some dyslexics the e-reader as a technological tool facilitates reading and comprehension when compared to reading on paper. In e-readers it is possible to have a larger font of letters, fewer words per line, greater spacing between lines, and control of screen brightness. On the other hand, in a study on the use of virtual learning environments (AVAs)²³, with dyslexic undergraduate students, some preference for paper text was identified through interviews. Some dyslexics preferred to read the text on paper because it was easier to mark the important passages. In addition, in writing, they considered that the keyboard reduced writing speed. Others, however, relied on the word processor for offering the spell checker tools and verifying grammatical errors, as they would not be able to perceive the errors alone. The text-to-speech conversion was commented by some interviewees as being a useful tool for perceiving the errors of a text, written by themselves.

The use of virtual reality technologies was described in a research that aimed to evaluate the operational memory of dyslexic graduate students²⁴. It concluded that virtual reality can be an effective technological evaluation tool, even to be used in early memory tests in children.

When the subject concerns speech therapy with remediation and phonological intervention objectives, the performance of dyslexic children submitted to the intervention program associated with computer use regarding reading skills was highlighted, providing an increase in reading and spelling levels of dyslexic children²⁵.

A literature review paper¹² on support for dyslexic students - based on the research on eight online databases - emphasized that it is important to recognize the individual needs of students so that technical solutions can be adapted.

The relationship between virtual environment and dyslexia has been described in a literature review¹⁵ and it verified that scientific articles published so far presented benefits and orientations for parents, teachers and professionals of dyslexic individuals.

In a review paper on the use of mobile technologies²⁵ - including smartphones, iPods, tablets and laptops to assist students with dyslexia - it was found that, although useful, they do not replace traditional teaching and learning strategies that have scientific evidence to support them.

In the 21 related scientific articles^3,5-19,21-25 published between 2010 and 2015, some aspects regarding the use of ICTs applied to dyslexia were suggested: type and font size; more suitable color variations in the screens that favor reading; control in the time of execution of the activities; text-to-speech conversion to be able to listen to the read text itself; phonological and multisensory resources to stimulate phonological awareness and spelling, besides interactive multimedia instruments as well as more appropriate characteristics of technology.

The distribution of the bibliographic references presented in this literature review on ICT applied to dyslexia can be observed in Figure 5.

Conclusion

This work presented an integrative review of the literature on information and communication technologies (ICT) applied to dyslexia. The articles included in this study presented interesting alternatives for the evaluation and intervention in dyslexia, among which we can mention: tools for reading evaluation and comprehension of texts, softwares and e-readers used to promote better reading performance in dyslexics, virtual environments and multimedia resources. It is observed that the published works, in general, aim at the construction and application of technological instruments that may facilitate the performance of the dyslexic in the learning of reading and writing. In the midst of the shortage of articles published in Brazil - when compared to the number of international articles - there is a need for further studies on this topic, considering the benefits of ICT in the scope of dyslexia assessment and intervention.

Acknowledgements

To Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for granting the first author the financial support.

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• Source of financial aid: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Feb 2017

History

• Received
  28 June 2016
• Accepted
  04 Jan 2017