Effect of robot-assisted phonological awareness training on invented spelling for children with reading disabilities

Abstract

Objectives: In order to teach spelling effectively to children with reading disabilities, they need to be taught to understand the phonological system. Phonological awareness training has been conducted using various methods and media; following current technological trends, robots have been introduced to aid this training. This research looks at the effectiveness of using robots to train children with reading disabilities in order to identify the robots' potential for improving spelling. Methods: Fourteen 6- to 8-year-old children with reading disabilities were divided into three groups: traditional phonological awareness training, robot-assisted phonological awareness training, and control groups. Phonological awareness tests and spelling tests were used in this study. It was conducted through pre- and post-tests for the three groups with an additional test in the middle of training for the experimental group. A maximum of 23 sessions for phonological awareness training were conducted biweekly and each session took about 30 minutes. Results: First, the results showed significant differences in the total number of correct responses for spelling among the three groups. Second, children with reading disabilities who were taught phonological awareness training showed significant differences across the test periods for the number of correct responses for words with phonological rules of invented spelling. Conclusion: This result suggests that intervention using a robot could be an effective intervention method for children with reading disabilities. In addition, the results showed that the more children with reading disabilities received phonological awareness training, the more invented spelling skills on words with phonological rules are improved. © 2017 Korean Academy of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.