The effect of font type on sight word reading performance of 4th and 5th grade students with reading disabilities

Abstract

Reading interventions are a crucial component to combat barriers associated with reading difficulties. Within the education realm, nearly 50% of students who receive special education supports have a Specific Learning Disability (Gargiulo, 2006). As a result, the development and implementation of effective and targeted interventions is critical. Christian Boer developed a font called Dyslexie to help remediate reading difficulties of individuals with Dyslexia (Boer, 2011). However, studies by de Leeuw (2010) and Pjipker (2013) provide inconsistent supportive evidence, regarding the effectiveness of Dyslexie. The current study sought to examine the effectiveness of Dyslexie as compared to Arial on sight word recognition tasks. A total of 36 fourth and fifth grade students with a Specific Learning Disability read two real word lists and one pseudoword lists in either font. Results do not suggest a significant difference between either font on sight word recognition tasks. Results, future directions, and implications for School Psychologists are discussed

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