A visual training tool for teaching kanji to children with developmental dyslexia

Abstract

We developed a visual training tool to assist children with developmental dyslexia in learning to recognize and understand Chinese characters (kanji). The visual training tool presents the strokes of a kanji character as separate shapes and requires students to use these fragments to construct the character. Two types of experiments were conducted to investigate the differences between the effects of the visual training tool and a traditional Japanese teaching method – shi-sha-ho, which consists of copying a visually displayed model – on developmentally dyslexic children's kanji writing skills. Six Japanese children with developmental dyslexia (7–11 years old) and 58 controls (7–8 years old) participated in the first experiment. Participants used both the visual training tool and the shi-sha-ho. We found that the visual training tool was more effective than the shi-sha-ho for use with Japanese children with developmental dyslexia in learning kanji, both just after the experiment was completed and four weeks later. In the second experiment, we asked four participants with dyslexia to use the visual training tool at home for four weeks prior to the second experiment once a week for four weeks. Participants learned one kanji character each week during the two weekly sessions for a period of eight weeks using the visual training tool. The post-tests were conducted four and eight weeks after the experiment. Participants’ retention of the target kanji was at least up to eight weeks. Results of the second experiment showed the visual training tool developed in the present study have shown the possibility of becoming a promising tool for children with developmental dyslexia.

Keywords:

• developmental dyslexia
• Chinese characters
• kanji
• visual cognition
• web-based learning

View correction statement:

Corrigendum

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the participants for their involvement in these experiments.

This article was originally published with errors. This version has been amended. Please see Corrigendum (10.1080/09588221.2014.922659)

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Health and Labor Sciences Research Grant [grant number H19-kokoro-Ippan-006] from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows [grant number 10J40092] from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Notes on contributors

Hanae Ikeshita-Yamazoe

Hanae Ikeshita-Yamazoe, senior researcher, Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University. Ikeshita-Yamazoe acquired a PhD degree in global information and telecommunication studies at Waseda University before working as a senior researcher at Ritsumekan Global Innovation Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University. Ikeshita-Yamazoe has been a clinical researcher at National Center for Child Health and Development since 2005. She held a postdoctoral fellowship of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University from 2010–2013. In the past, she developed literacy learning methods for development dyslexia, digital picture books.

Masutomo Miyao

Masutomo Miyao, Chief, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychosocial Medicine, National Medical Center for Children and Mothers, National Center for Child Health and Development. Miyao acquired an MD-PhD degree in medicine at Jichi Medical School. He held the position of an associate professor at Jichi Medical University between 1980 and 1996. He has been at the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychosocial Medicine, National Medical Center for Children and Mothers, National Center for Child Health and Development since 2001. He has been engaged in clinical research in terms of neurology, psychology and psychiatry about developmental disorders (ADHD, LD and Asperger's syndrome).