TALK: SPEAKER Genevieve McArthur "Sight-word and phonics training in children with dyslexia"

The primary aim of this randomised control trial was to determine how to improve the treatment of dyslexia. To this end, we divided 94 children with dyslexia, aged between 7 and 12 years into three treatment groups. The first group was given 8 weeks of phonics training and then 8 weeks of sight-word training (phonics+sight-word group). The second group was given the same training but in reverse order (sight-word+phonics group). The third group was given phonics and sight-word training on alternate days (mixed group). The outcomes revealed that 16 weeks of phonics and sight-word training had a statistically significant and large effect on word reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension, regardless of order of phonics and sight-word training. Further, 8 weeks of sight-word training had a larger effect on irregular-word reading than phonics training, while 8 weeks of phonics training had a larger effect on regular word reading than sight-word training. These findings indicate that many children with dyslexia require both sight-word training as well as phonics training.

Person Perception Seminars, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition & its Disorders