The Effectiveness of Educational Package Based on Visual-Spatial Processing in Reading Performance of Dyslexic Students

Abstract

79 Research Paper: The Effectiveness of Educational Package Based on Visual- Spatial Processing in Reading Performance of Dyslexic Students Khatereh Vojoudi1 , Mahnaz Akhavan Tafti1* , Moluk Khademi Ashkzari1 1. Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran. * Corresponding Author: Mahnaz Akhavan Tafti, PhD. Address: Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran. Tel: +98 (912) 2187860 E-mail: makhavan@alzahra.ac.ir Background: Dyslexia refers to a kind of learning difficulty, a combination of strengths and weaknesses which affects the reading and spelling learning process. Objectives: The aim of current research was to develop an instructional package based on visual spatial abilities and examine its efficacy on the reading performance of students with dyslexia. Materials and Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group. The statistical population included dyslexic students in the elementary schools of Hamadan City, Iran in the academic year 2016-2017. The sample size was 60 students that were randomly selected and assigned to the experimental and control groups (n=30 in each group). This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of an educational package based on visualspatial abilities in reading performance of dyslexic students. To achieve this aim, we designed an educational package based on visual-spatial abilities presented in 10 forty-minute sessions. Before training the package, the experimental and control group were taken a pre-test of reading abilities and the same test was repeated after receiving the package training. The data gathering tools were reading and dyslexia tests. The covariance test was used to analyze the research data. Results: The result indicated that the intervention was significantly effective in the subscales of words reading, word chain, word comprehension, text comprehension, and naming of the images. The results also showed that the educational package was not effective in other areas of reading, including rhyming, reading the non-words, removing the voices, marks of letters, and words. Conclusion: Based on the results, the visual-spatial package was effective in improving the reading skills of dyslexic students.