Cracking the code:Towards understanding, diagnosing and remediating dyslexia in Standard Indonesian

Dyslexia is the most common learning disability and occurs in all languages. The specific orthography to be acquired, however, has been identified as having a great impact on the reading acquisition process and dyslexia. Early identification of children who are at risk of developing serious reading deficits and the provision of effective support are of great importance to break the vicious cycle of negative learning experiences and minimize the sequelae of developing or ongoing reading disabilities. The past decades have seen great advances in our understanding of typical reading development and the causes of deficits in the acquisition process. Yet, very little research has been conducted into reading and spelling development in the languages of Southeast Asia, among which is the highly transparent Standard Indonesian language (SI; spoken by over 160 million people). To the best of our knowledge, prior to the PhD research, neither a standardized assessment battery had been developed to identify students with or at risk of developing dyslexia, nor a standardized intervention scheme to support struggling readers in SI. Conducted in collaboration with the University of North Sumatra (Indonesia) and the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), the general aims of this research were: 1) to gain more insight into orthographic differences between alphabetic languages and their impact on reading and dyslexia, 2) to compose a test battery to facilitate the assessment of reading difficulties in young readers of SI, and 3) to develop an SI version of GraphoGame, a computer-based reading intervention, and test its effectiveness in first grade students

Dynamic assessment of the effectiveness of digital game-based literacy training in beginning readers:a cluster randomised controlled trial

In this article, we report on a study evaluating the effectiveness of a digital game-based learning (DGBL) tool for beginning readers of Dutch, employing active (math game) and passive (no game) control conditions. This classroom-level randomized controlled trial included 247 first graders from 16 classrooms in the Netherlands and the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The intervention consisted of 10 to 15 min of daily playing during school time for a period of up to 7 weeks. Our outcome measures included reading fluency, phonological skills, as well as purpose built in-game proficiency levels to measure written lexical decision and letter speech sound association. After an average of 28 playing sessions, the literacy game improved letter knowledge at a scale generalizable for all children in the classroom compared to the two control conditions. In addition to a small classroom wide benefit in terms of reading fluency, we furthermore discovered that children who scored high on phonological awareness prior to training were more fluent readers after extensive exposure to the reading game. This study is among the first to exploit game generated data for the evaluation of DGBL for literacy interventions

Dynamic assessment of the effectiveness of digital game-based literacy training in beginning readers: a cluster randomised controlled trial

In this article, we report on a study evaluating the effectiveness of a digital game-based learning (DGBL) tool for beginning readers of Dutch, employing active (math game) and passive (no game) control conditions. This classroom-level randomized controlled trial included 247 first graders from 16 classrooms in the Netherlands and the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The intervention consisted of 10 to 15 min of daily playing during school time for a period of up to 7 weeks. Our outcome measures included reading fluency, phonological skills, as well as purpose built in-game proficiency levels to measure written lexical decision and letter speech sound association. After an average of 28 playing sessions, the literacy game improved letter knowledge at a scale generalizable for all children in the classroom compared to the two control conditions. In addition to a small classroom wide benefit in terms of reading fluency, we furthermore discovered that children who scored high on phonological awareness prior to training were more fluent readers after extensive exposure to the reading game. This study is among the first to exploit game generated data for the evaluation of DGBL for literacy interventions

Towards identifying dyslexia in Standard Indonesian:: the development of a reading assessment battery

With its transparent orthography, Standard Indonesian is spoken by over 160 million inhabitants and is the primary language of instruction in education and the government in Indonesia. An assessment battery of reading and reading-related skills was developed as a starting point for the diagnosis of dyslexia in beginner learners. Founded on the International Dyslexia Association's definition of dyslexia, the test battery comprises nine empirically motivated reading and reading-related tasks assessing word reading, pseudoword reading, arithmetic, rapid automatized naming, phoneme deletion, forward and backward digit span, verbal fluency, orthographic choice (spelling), and writing. The test was validated by computing the relationships between the outcomes on the reading-skills and reading-related measures by means of correlation and factor analyses. External variables, i.e., school grades and teacher ratings of the reading and learning abilities of individual students, were also utilized to provide evidence of its construct validity. Four variables were found to be significantly related with reading-skill measures: phonological awareness, rapid naming, spelling, and digit span. The current study on reading development in Standard Indonesian confirms findings from other languages with transparent orthographies and suggests a test battery including preliminary norm scores for screening and assessment of elementary school children learning to read Standard Indonesian

Measuring orthographic transparency and morphological-syllabic complexity in alphabetic orthographies : a narrative review

This narrative review discusses quantitative indices measuring differences between alphabetic languages that are related to the process of word recognition. The specific orthography that a child is acquiring has been identified as a central element influencing reading acquisition and dyslexia. However, the development of reliable metrics to measure differences between language scripts hasn’t received much attention so far. This paper therefore reviews metrics proposed in the literature for quantifying orthographic transparency, syllabic complexity, and morphological complexity of alphabetic languages. The review included searches of Web of Science, PubMed, PsychInfo, Google Scholar, and various online sources. Search terms pertained to orthographic transparency, morphological complexity, and syllabic complexity in relation to reading acquisition, and dyslexia. Although the predictive value of these metrics is promising, more research is needed to validate the value of the metrics discussed and to understand the ‘developmental footprint’ of orthographic transparency, morphological complexity, and syllabic complexity in the lexical organization and processing strategies.peerReviewe

GraphoLearn SI : Digital learning support for reading difficulties in a transparent orthography

Recognition of the importance of evidence-based technological tools that provide personalized learning opportunities is growing. This paper reports on a pilot study evaluating GraphoLearn for Standard Indonesian, a digital game environment that trains basic reading skills by extensive-but-playful exposure to grapheme–phoneme correspondences. The results obtained from 33 Indonesian first graders show that game progress was found to be a significant predictor of reading and decoding abilities both at the posttest and the 5-month follow-up assessment. Our results additionally indicated a significant interaction effect of game progress and letter–sound knowledge at posttest: Progress in the game was strongly related to reading and decoding fluency, but only for students with average to above-average pretest letter knowledge. To enable students with low letter knowledge at the outset to benefit fully from the game as well, we suggest extending the playing period to approximately 6 months to establish firmly letter knowledge and phonological awareness skills.peerReviewe

Cracking the Code : The Impact of Orthographic Transparency and Morphological-Syllabic Complexity on Reading and Developmental Dyslexia

Reading is an essential skill in modern societies, yet not all learners necessarily become proficient readers. Theoretical concepts (e.g., the orthographic depth hypothesis; the grain size theory) as well as empirical evidence suggest that certain orthographies are easier to learn than others. The present paper reviews the literature on orthographic transparency, morphological complexity, and syllabic complexity of alphabetic languages. These notions are elaborated to show that differences in reading acquisition reflect fundamental differences in the nature of the phonological recoding and reading strategies developing in response to the specific orthography to be learned. The present paper provides a narrative, cross-linguistic and integrated literature review, thereby contributing to the development of universal reading models and at the same time pointing out the important differences between orthographies at the more detailed level. Our review also yields suggestions to devise language-specific instruction and interventions for the development of the specific reading strategies required by the characteristics of the orthography being acquired.peerReviewe

GraphoGame SI : the development of a technology-enhanced literacy learning tool for Standard Indonesian

Early intervention programs are generally considered the most efficient and beneficial approach to providing support to struggling beginning readers. This paper discusses the theoretical background, development, and design of, as well as the first results obtained with, GraphoGame for Standard Indonesian, a technology-enhanced learning environment that trains the basic skills of reading by high but playful exposure to grapheme-phoneme coupling. The results of the pilot study assessing the usability of the program in 69 first-graders show that the more the students with low pre-test phonological skills were exposed to the game, the better their post-test performance on reading and decoding fluency became. Although large-scale, randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm the effectiveness of GraphoGame SI, these promising first results may offer a stepping stone for the development of additional language versions and future systematic comparisons of the method’s results in different languages and populations.peerReviewe