Various pieces of research show that the development of certain skills in childhood is very important if learning to read is going to be successful. The early signs of dyslexia appear during the Pre-Primary Education stage. Yet this stage is not compulsory and so the means and resources geared towards detecting special education needs are much scarcer than at any other stage in education. What is more, "if these resources are to be suitable, they need to be configured in the child's mother tongue, in Basque, for example, yet in Pre-Primary Education there are no tools designed to prevent and assess these problems in learning to read," pointed out Romero.

In this context, the UPV/EHU researcher Ainara Romero has designed, developed and evaluated a piece of educational software in Basque to prevent problems in learning to read: Berni. It is available on the berni.dalata.net website. To prevent reading difficulties, Berni takes the following skills into consideration through various games: phonological awareness, alphabetic awareness, verbal memory, receptive and expressive language and print awareness. As the researcher points out, these five variables are key ones when it comes to spotting difficulties in learning to read and coming up with an early diagnosis. In other words, this tool will help to predict whether or not schoolchildren are displaying certain problems when learning to read.

Effective and easy to handle

To measure the effectiveness of the Berni software, Romero has worked in seven schools in Bizkaia with 417 children aged between four and five. 43 of them displayed signs of pre-dyslexia, as they were experiencing difficulties in the fundamental variables. So 23 children in this group participated in the use of the Berni software, and the rest (20) did not use this tool. In addition, another 42 randomly-chosen children, who in principle did not display any kinds of difficulties, were assessed. To complete the Berni software, the children needed two 20 to 25-minute sessions per week over a period of 7 to 8 weeks.

The researcher then drew a comparison between the children who had participated in the game and those who had not, and confirmed the support that Berni signified for the children with difficulties in learning to read, since they had improved considerably in terms of phonological awareness and verbal memory, among other things. "The results are promising as these two factors are the two variables that are directly linked to the development of dyslexia," stressed Romero. The results are also positive in the case of receptive and expressive language and print awareness.  "Alphabetic awareness, by contrast, is not so clear, because this variable is also worked on in the classrooms and an improvement was found in both cases; so I cannot confirm whether it was a consequence of Berni or not," explained the researcher.

The researcher believes that this new tool will help to reduce and minimize children's difficulties in learning to read. It also offers strategies to respond to these difficulties during the Pre-Primary Education stage. This way an early diagnosis is made of the problems or difficulties, and all the curricular, emotional, and social problems that this may give rise to are avoided.

Additional information

Ainara Romero-Andonegi (Bermeo, 1982) is a graduate in Psychology and Child Education. Irakurketa zailtasunei aurrea hartzeko software didaktiko baten diseinua eta ebaluazioa (Design and evaluation of a piece of didactic software to prevent reading difficulties) is the title of her PhD thesis written up in the Department Didactics and School Organisation of the University School of Teacher Training in Bilbao (UPV/EHU) and supervised by Carlos Castaño-Garrido, tenured lecturer of the UPV/EHU and head of Digital Strategy.
 

Photo: Mikel Mtz de Trespuentes.