Reading is one of the four language skills. It is taught mostly during the first years of studying at school and is considered to be one of the basic skills each person should possess. It seems impossible to imagine a modern well-educated person who is not able to read or displays poor reading proficiency. However, some children face various reading disabilities. The resolution of this problem is special reading programs intended to increase reading proficiency which turned out to be quite effective. The results of the study show that the elementary school students who use reading proficiency in class have an increase in their classroom proficiency exams than students that do not use them. A poof will be this essay, where are analyzed two academic articles from various disciplines on combating reading difficulties among elementary school students. The sources under analysis are Linda F?lth, Stefan Gustafson, Tomas Tjus, Mikael Heimann and Idor Svensson's Computer-Assisted Interventions Targeting Reading Skills of Children with Reading Disabilities - A Longitudinal Study and Nina L. Saine, Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Timo Ahonen, Asko Tolvanen and Heikki Lyytinen's Computer-Assisted Remedial Reading Intervention for School Beginners at Risk for Reading Disability.
The first article written by F?lth et al. (2013) examines poor reading proficiency from different perspectives. Although some of the co-writers including Tomas Tjus and Mikael Heimann specialize in psychiatry and neurology, the first author Linda F?lth's major is education. Taking into account the fact that all tests described in the article were conducted by this professor, this source is classified as related to education. What concerns the other article written by Saine et al. (2011) it is composed by psychologists. Thus, the problem of reading disability will be observed in this essay from the point of view of education and psychology.
Let's take a closer look at the first article. It deals with improving reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2. Two test points were made before the
intervention, and three afterwards. The last follow-up was made 1 year after the first
measurement, one 130 children participated in the study. Three computerized interventions on the reading skills are used focusing on various learning abilities. They include word decoding skills and phonological abilities, word and sentence recognition and a combination of these two (F?lth et al., 2013, p. 37). The experiment was carried out in Sweden and involved one hundred thirty students from 41 schools. One hundred of the participants had showed significant deviations in the sight word reading test and the first test session. The rest of the candidates for the experiment had displayed ordinary rate of reading skills (F?lth et al., 2013, p.40). The children were assigned to five testing groups. They included phonological training, comprehension training, combined training, ordinary special instruction, and a comparison group of elementary school children with typical results. As mentioned above, Linda F?lth administered all tests. A wide range of pedagogical materials was used. Among tested elements of the experiment sight word reading, word recognition, non-word reading, segment subtraction, reading comprehension, rapid automatized naming, processing speed, verbal fluency, short-term memory, and working memory are to be mentioned. Training programs included Omega-Interactive Sentences comprehension program and COMputerized PHOnological Training program (F?lth et al., 2013, p. 41).
What concerns the results of the tests, they were quite satisfactory. According to F?lth et al. (2013, p. 49), combined method was the most beneficial to the participants, but the groups that tried other kinds of training also displayed good scores. The scholars state that the computer-assisted intervention tested in the study can have positive effects on the improvement of reading skills of children with reading disabilities. There are restrictions that should be taken into application in the explanation of these results. Nevertheless, it is essential to identify and target preparation at the weak areas of a child's reading. This study, showed that a computer-assisted interference targeting both phonological and reading apprehension training can be an effective reading intervention.
Let's now move to the second source observed in this essay. Although the topic of the article is rather similar, methods and their implementation are different. In a nutshell, one hundred sixty-six seven-year-old children from Finland participated in the study. The test included knowledge of the Finnish letters, six phonological subtests, and Rapid Automatized Naming Test (Saine et al., 2011, p. 1011). The study focused on letter knowledge, reading accuracy, fluency and spelling. Two different kinds of intervention were applied: regular remedial reading intervention (RRI) and computer-assisted remedial reading intervention (CARRI). According to Saine et al. (2011, p. 1023), the CARRI group displayed significant progress in all tests. The children at-risk in the RRI group made gains as well, but they were not so prominent in comparison with the success of the first group. The results showed that children at risk for constructive reading deficiency benefit from ? therapeutic reading intervention that is enriched with the CAI utilization like GraphoGame in the very beginning of the first grade, at least in a thick orthography like Finnish. Furthermore, children still declining to succeed in reading should be provided with personally intended reading support enriched a computer operation, as detailed and fluent reading and spelling skills are the spring-board to latest school success.
Having read the two articles, the conclusion can be that these academic sources have similar as well as different features in terms of chosen methods of study, its performance, interpretation of results and general impression of the articles. I'd like to start with the similarities. To begin with, the topic under study was almost the same. The scholars investigated the effects of computer-assisted interventions on school beginners at risk for reading disability. The experiment focused mainly on letter and word recognition, reading fluency and accuracy. The participants of the study were elementary school students of a particular area. In both cases they were examined before the testing procedure, while testing, and some period after it. Moreover, the research methods are mostly the same. They include inductive reasoning, pragmatic observations, experimental research and statistical methods.
Moreover, education and psychology are interrelated sciences. It is impossible for a teacher to choose and develop teaching strategies without knowledge of psychology. These two disciplines have similar subject of study. Psychology studies the laws of the human psyche. Education develops the laws of control and influence on the development of a personality. Upbringing and education of children and adults is a deliberate impact on psychological abilities of a person. Consequently, these processes cannot be made by experts who lack psychological expertise. What is more, the results of pedagogical activity are assessed by the psychological changes of a person. In addition, the connection of these disciplines resulted in another discipline that encompasses them two and is called pedagogical or educational psychology.
However, the sources under analysis differ in a number of features. The main difference is the focus of study. The first one is more teacher-oriented. It is directed on various kinds of instruction, teaching methods and the role of the teacher in combating reading disabilities. In contrast to it, the second approach is more student-centered. The writers of the article pay attention to Ehri's stage model of reading achievement (Saine et al., 2011, p. 1013). It includes such phases as the prealphabetic stage, partial-alphabetic, full-alphabetic, consolidated-alphabetic, precommunicative, semiphonetic, phonetic and transitional stages. Thus, the scholars focus on the way a child learns and develops his or her language skills. The second study also takes into account such factors as geographical area, similar socioeconomic status and population density, as well as more formulae and statistics. Thus, that psychologist considered background and influence of the environment in the test to obtain more accurate results. In comparison with this experiment, the selected participants of the first study were randomly assigned to one of the four groups.
References
F?lth, L., Gustafson, S., Tjus, T., Heimann, M., & Svensson, I. (2013). Computer-assisted interventions targeting reading skills of children with reading disabilities. A longitudinal study [PDF document]. Dyslexia. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
Saine, N., Lerkkanen, M., Ahonen, T., Tolvanen, A., & Lyytinen, H. (2011). Computer-assisted remedial reading intervention for school beginners at risk for reading disability. Child Development, 82, 1013-1028.
