Developments in the teaching of children with disabilities support pedagogy that emphasises learners’ strengths as opposed to their assumed deficiencies. Educators and mediators who advocate this view continually strive for tools and methodologies that enhance learner participation in academic environments. Computer technology is one of the tools recognised for its potential to enrich learning experiences of learners with an intellectual impairment.
We sought to assess the influence of text-to-speech stories on the reading ability of intellectually challenged learners.
A qualitative action research study that involves learners at a special school in Cape Town, South Africa. Pre- and post-test data of the reading performance of learners are analysed with a focus on how they demonstrate change.
Although no claims can be made about the explicit influence on reading performance, computer-assisted learning has the potential in isolating reading processes that classroom-based interventions can address. In addition, computers enhance motivation and enthusiasm to learn.
A need for education based on inclusion and positive differentiation remains the key driver in any educational interventions.
A diagnosis of intellectual disability (ID) invites several questions on the extent to which one can learn and the speed at which learning can take place (Baroff & Olley What kind of change in reading abilities do learners with intellectual disability undergo when taught through text-to-speech books?
Technological resources can be used to support the learning of the intellectually disabled learner (Phillips et al.
Multimedia technology is an aspect of computer-assisted teaching resource that has benefits across the learning styles of all types of learners as well as providing a different method of instruction (Campbell & Mechling
This study assesses the influence of text-to-speech stories (also called talking books) on the reading ability of learners with ID. Talking books refers to audio-formatted recordings of books, magazines and other texts generally used to allow visually impaired learners to access such texts (American Foundation for the Blind
Literacy is an integral part of the curriculum. It is needless to say that success in other areas of learning is strongly linked to the extent to which learners can carry out the literacy acts of reading and writing (Erickson et al.
While there are many theories with embedded concepts that are often tapped into in explaining learning and cognitive development, for this study we look specifically to Vygotsky (
Zone of proximal development takes a new meaning when seeking to understand learning and development which does not occur as regularly theorised, such as in the case of those with ID. In this regard, we look specifically to Vygotskian theory of dysontogenesis (TD) which provides a framework for the analysis of enabling mechanisms for change with regard to the development of those with impairments. In this view, the strengthening and empowerment of skills as opposed to emphasis on weaknesses is the route to take for educators (Gindis
As explained earlier, ID imposes cognitive difficulties in reading, writing, spelling and the processing of numbers (American Psychiatric Association Language, communication and auditory reception. Reasoning, idea production and cognitive speed. Memory and learning. Visual perception. Knowledge and achievement (Wehmeyer et al.
Edyburn (
Reading and writing constitute modalities through which language can be taught to young learners (Carstens
Word recognition refers to the ‘instant recall of words in which the reader resorts to no obvious mechanisms to recognize the word’ (Wong et al.
Reading comprehension is the ability of the child to understand the text being read (Lea & Street
Reading fluency, being the last of the processes, relates to the speed and accuracy in the execution of the reading task (Chard Vaughn & Tyler
For a learner with ID, interventions that entail the teaching of language processes described above have been found effective in improving their reading abilities (Al Otaiba & Hosp
According to Edyburn (
Thompson (
E-text can be defined as the ‘text that has been altered to increase access and provide support to learners’ (Edwards
E-books serve to replicate the printed paper-based storybooks into a digital format. In contrast to print paper-based books, e-books have additional multimedia effects to support the learner’s understanding of the text (Rhodes & Milby
The interactive nature of e-books makes them particularly very attractive for young learners, and they tend to repeat activities which increase learning (Picton
Furthermore, children’s books that have been recreated into an electronic format allow the learner to track print and view a visual representation of the story. Electronic books help the learner to build their vocabulary, aid the understanding of the text while at the same time showing them how to read fluently (Horney & Anderson-Inman
Teaching children with intellectual impairments entails the use of appropriately identified technological aids. Text-to-speech technology is one such technologically intensive teaching aids in the context of special needs teaching and learning. This does not however mean that the decision to employ technology is taken blindly. We consider and accept the caution made by Roulstone (
This paper reports on part of a larger qualitative action research that was conducted in 2013. The broader study sought to assess the impact of text-to-speech technology on the reading ability of intellectually impaired learners. We opted for a qualitative approach because our interest is in exploring how individual intellectually disabled learners responded to the technology, thus assessing the strengths of such technology as a mediating artefact.
Action research is a ‘systematic study that combines action and reflection with the intention of improving practice’ (Cohen, Manion & Morrison
The action research process.
This model allowed us to base the implementation of our intervention on sound research, careful planning and alignment with our research questions. The strength of this model is that it enables us to use theory as a reflection tool when interpreting the data (Maxwell
This action research took place at a special school within the Cape Metropole area that caters for learners with ID. The primary convenient sampling group comprised 35 learners across the five intermediate phase classes of the school where one of the researchers worked. To ensure that none of the learners was put at an advantageous or disadvantageous position in relation to one another, the following measures were undertaken: (1) all learners were exposed to the same reading activity, whether dependent (active educator support) or independent (less active educator support) and (2) no undue attention was granted to anyone beyond the level of support that would have been granted to all in the class during class activities. In this sense, the use of a control group was not an option so as to keep with ethical promises that all learners would be equally exposed to potential benefits of the intervention.
In addition to being in the intermediate phase (Grades 4–6), the learners met the following criteria:
Prior to their participation in the study, the learners had been diagnosed as being intellectually disabled (the diagnosis of ID was carried out prior to placement at the special school) and were chronologically between 10 and 14 years old with an average mental age of between 4 and 7 years old. The learners were in the intermediate phase but were being exposed to the foundation phase (Grades R–3) curriculum because of their mental age.
The secondary sample group comprised the four educators of the learners. The reasoning behind the selection of this group was based on their daily direct involvement with the learners. The function of the educators was to assist the researchers to perform the pre- and post-tests as well as to engage the learners during the intervention sessions. The educators’ role in the study was therefore to provide qualitative accounts of learners’ progress or lack thereof.
The school selected for this study had the following contextual characteristics:
well-resourced school (computer equipped with a computer lab and Internet), located within the Cape Town metropolis: access to excellent communication and technological facilities, bilingual classes (both learners and teachers use Afrikaans and English as a medium of teaching and learning).
Preliminary activities included securing permission to conduct the study from relevant authorities, applying for ethical clearance and piloting the study in classrooms similar to those that later served as the main study base. The content of the project was positioned within and aligned with the curriculum requirements of the school. The base curriculum was the national curriculum, and the project served as a form of differentiated teaching given the needs and strengths of learners at the school. Permission was sought from the educators to participate in the study as part of their day-to-day teaching activities and they were informed that participation was voluntary. One of the researchers’ roles was to set up all the study instruments and collection of data as he was an educator at the school. Parents’ consent was not sought because the project neither entailed anything outside the normal learning routines nor posed any form of danger or discomfort to learners.
The aim of the pilot was essentially to inform the main study. A pilot study is defined as a ‘small study conducted prior to a large piece of research to determine whether the methodology, sampling, instruments and analysis are adequate and appropriate’ (De Vos et al.
The pre-tests and post-tests of the learners took place in the learners’ own classes. Pre- and post-testing was conducted with all five classes in the intermediate phase of the school. Each learner was given a short story from the Talking Story Series written by Margaret Koopedi (
The interventions consisted of the learners being exposed to the same stories as had been used during the pre-tests. However, during the interventions the stories had text-to-speech elements included. Essentially, the learners made use of a text-to-speech program that was meant to stimulate them both visually and acoustically as opposed to printed information. In the process the learners could listen to electronic text on a computer screen whilst following the highlighted words at the same time. During the intervention the learners used headphones to listen to a story at least three times for 20 min. As the story was read by the computer, the individual words were highlighted. The stories were English and Afrikaans versions of ‘In our Classroom’ (
Intervention stories.
The learners were exposed to the words of the story on three levels. The first level was when the educator ‘read’ the story to them a few times and then following the story on the computer. The second level was when the individual learners got an opportunity to listen to, follow and read the story, whilst the rest of the group listened to their peers. The third level of exposure was when the educator explained and re-read the parts not properly read by the learners. This intervention was premised on research reported by Zhao (
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the four educators helping with the tests’ administration and the intervention. The main purpose of the interviews was for the educators to share observations they had made about learners during the two processes. The interview questions were as follows:
What in your view is the role of technology, especially computers, in the learning and teaching of mentally challenged learners? What, if any, have been the general achievements that your learners made when using computers as a learning tool? Have you observed any change in your learners’ reading ability whilst being part of the reading sessions? What have you learned from this change? How would you describe your learners’ reading competency (before and after the intervention) in relation to the following units:
the ability to code text word recognition visual discrimination of words reading fluency their understanding of the stories Do you have any last comments or observations?
The study received ethical clearance through the CPUT Faculty of Education Ethics Committee (Approval Certificate EFEC 2-7/2009). Permission to conduct the study at Western Cape Public School was obtained from the Western Cape Education Department Research Directorate.
The findings presented in this section are from reading performances of learners during pre- and post-tests and highlights from interviews conducted with educators of these learners.
Two clearly defined groups emerged when performance was analysed. The first learner group are those who managed to read between 4 and 35 words, compared with the second group that had a very low to zero (0) reading pre-test score. From the outset it appeared that the strides made by learner group 1 (LG1) (high pre-test) was much higher than that of learner group 2 (LG2). That is, the learners who were able to identify more words during the pre-test were able to replicate and improve on that score during the post-test. In addition, time spent on reading (speed) by the LG1 was between 27 s and total given time of 60 s. The LG2 spent a full 60 s on the reading tasks. Beyond the question of how many words were read and how many errors were made, the next level of analysis focuses specifically on: (1) learners’ reading behaviours and (2) whether they made or did not make errors.
The behaviours and errors during reading were categorised along language processes and milestones expected of learners as they learn how to read. These are ‘letter and word recognition’, ‘decoding’, ‘comprehension’ as well as how fluently the learner engages with the text (Long & Zimmerman
Omission: This refers to instances where a learner leaves out the words ‘pieces’, ‘of’, ‘chalk’ from the sentence ‘there are two pieces of chalk’.
Substituting words in text with own words: A learner in this instance replaces the word ‘there’ with ‘here’ in the sentence ‘there are four books’. Another example was to read ‘pencils’ instead of ‘pictures’ in the sentence ‘here are seven pictures’.
Refusal to read: The learner refuses to read any part of the story and keeps quiet for the remainder of the session. No reading took place.
Identification of letters as opposed to whole words: It means the learner identifies certain or all the letters in a given word instead of reading the whole word, for example, ‘o’, ‘e’, in the word ‘onderwyser’ (educator).
Self-corrects misread words: An example of this is where a learner (e.g. Rhona and Bradley) reads ‘onderwyser’ (male educator) and corrects the word by reading ‘onderwyseres’ (female educator). This implies that learner has realised that he or she has omitted a segment of a word and corrected it without prompting.
Reversals: A learner tends to read letters or words in reverse (Ekwall
Additions or insertions: The learner, for example, adds a word in the sentence ‘daar is twee bordkryte’ (there are two pieces of chalk) reads as ‘daar is net twee bordkryte’ (there are
In line with the above descriptions,
Learner group 1 (LG1) categorisation of reading behaviours.
Category | Errors and behaviours | Pre-test incidences | Post-test incidences |
---|---|---|---|
Word and letter recognition | 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 | 201 | 75 |
Comprehension | 7 and retell | 101 | 211 |
Fluency | Words read Sentences read Seconds on task Errors made |
Words: 146 Sentences: 44 Time: 560 Errors: 192 |
Words: 247 Sentences: 65 Time: 481 Errors: 91 |
It is clear from
The positive behaviours noted in ‘I pick up a tremendous enthusiasm in the learners … they insist they want to read every day … they longed for what they have learnt … means a lot for them … I must just make it smaller … they must get the exercise everyday… when we go to the computer lab … they want to go straight to the stories … good thing [
In
Learner group 2 (LG2) categorisation of reading behaviours.
Category | Errors and behaviours | Pre-test Incidences | Post-test incidences |
---|---|---|---|
Word and letter recognition | 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 | 734 | 628 |
Comprehension | 7 and retell | 44 | 213 |
Fluency | Words read Sentences read Seconds on task Errors made |
Words: 6 Sentences: 2 Time: 1560 Errors: 765 |
Words: 104 Sentences: 37 Time: 1560 Errors: 664 |
Similarly to the LG1 in
As the study was not about a performance of a particular group against the other (LG1 vs LG2), in
Overall categories of reading behaviour.
Category | Errors and behaviours | Pre-test | Post-test |
---|---|---|---|
Word and letter recognition | 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 | 935 | 703 |
Comprehension | 7 and retell | 145 | 424 |
Fluency | High total word count; High total sentence count; Fewer errors made; High retell word count; Less time used. |
LG1 improved on all criteria |
LG1, Learner group 1; LG2, Learner group 2.
It is clear from the above overall depiction of learner performance between the pre- and post-tests that there was a positive upward movement in learners’ comprehension of the story. The positive trend is indicated by a high level of meaningful insertions of words which did not feature in the actual story words and the learners’ ability to retell the stories. Educators’ observations of learner performance were in line with the trend. For example, Educator 3 disclosed
‘… Word recognition, … sight reading … and now I see with some of them one could move beyond that; visual discrimination of words, … showing me word for word, … using that method, … found that it works well for me.’ (Educator 3, male, LG1 & 2)
Another important observation made by the educators was that the text-to-speech artefact had been the most exciting part of the interventions. Educator 1 explained that stories told and seen through the computer seemed to generate an interest level she had not seen in learners before. In her own words, ‘a child views a story on the computer, hearing this voice coming from the computer … makes learning interesting and fun’ (Educator 1, female, LG1 & 2).
With the picture portrayed by the findings in
The gains made by learners might appear insignificant if we were concerned with a learner population without ID. For this group of learners gains like increased enthusiasm and motivation, observable increase in number of words read and sophistication in comprehension such as insertions of their own meaningful words in retelling the story could all attest to the joined mediational impact of educators and listening to and seeing story words on the computer. As reading ability consists of several processes ranging from word recognition, comprehension and fluency, we examine more specifically the nature of processes that emerged following the intervention.
The biggest reading difficulty experienced by learners in this study pertained to word recognition. Allor et al. (
Where reading comprehension is concerned, the performance of learners in this study confirms what previous research has revealed. Learners with word recognition difficulties have lower grasp or comprehension of the story which is often exacerbated by poor decoding required for word recognition (Wong et al.
A number of correct words and sentences read and time spent on reading are indicative of reading fluency which is defined as the speed and accuracy in the execution of the reading task (Chard, Vaughn & Tyler,
It is on the question of the emerging reading processes that one limitation of the study reveals itself. Initial in-depth analysis of data should have occurred after the pre-test in order to isolate those areas that the intervention could have addressed. This limitation is a crucial finding by itself which future research could address. The second limitation relates to the absence of a control group. It is possible that what we have interpreted as reading gains could have resulted from the use of any teaching artefact besides the text-to-speech stories. Performance of a control group which was not exposed to the intervention could have led to clearly established conclusions. Lastly, that the analysis isolated two groups and this was not followed up, for example in terms of probing from the educators concerned if they did anything differently which in their opinion could have resulted in higher gains for LG1, was a lost opportunity for revealing the specific variables that could have added to this marked difference between the two groups.
The study set out to assess the influence of computer technology on reading abilities of learners with intellectual impairment. Two crucial implications can be drawn from the foregoing discussion: Despite initial intents, no claims of this influence can be made given the duration of the intervention and the non-exclusion of other influences within the study context which could have influenced the reading behaviours noted in the foregoing section. All the same, important learnings have unfolded from the study.
Firstly, the study clearly points towards the potential of computer-assisted learning in isolating reading processes that interventions based on testing could address. An example is increased word recognition which ultimately leads to reading fluency. The second crucial learning is the role of computer technology in enhancing enthusiasm and motivation to learn which in a sense supports findings from similar studies (Scruggs
The authors thank and acknowledge Cape Peninsula University of Technology for a research fund used for the setting up of this study.
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
C.P.M. supervised the research project, provided critical feedback with regard to the conceptualisation of the research, conducted the analysis and wrote the article. A.M.W. designed the instruments for this research, collected the data and collaborated on the initial draft of the article. E.E.E. provided critical feedback and edited the various drafts of the article.