Intervention for Dyslexia - The British Dyslexia Association

likely that significant proportions of the children involved in these studies had dyslexia.
(For the similar argument deployed by Reading Recovery, see section 5.6.2.)
In preparing this chapter, the emphasis has been on identifying teaching programmes
that are most likely to be of benefit for dyslexic pupils. Of the 14 phonological
programmes considered by Brooks, the following six have not been considered here
because current evidence is not substantial enough to form a view on whether or not
they are likely to be useful for dyslexics: ARROW, Direct Phonics, Phonological
Awareness Training (PAT), Sound Discovery, Sounds~Write, Sound Training for
Reading. However, if further research became available that view might have to be
reconsidered.
The following eight phonological programmes have been selected as being of particular
relevance to this review either because they have been the subject of several published
larger-scale intervention studies (often with children who are more severely impaired in
reading) and/or the impact was particularly marked (and therefore they are more likely
to prove beneficial to dyslexics): AcceleRead AcceleWrite, Lexia, Phono-Graphix,
Phonology with Reading, Read Write Inc., SIDNEY, THRASS, Toe by Toe. To these eight
we may add two further approaches that are also highly structured programmes
focusing primarily on phonological skills, and which have been the subject of several
research studies: Interactive Assessment and Teaching (IA&T) and Reading Intervention
(formerly Cumbria Reading with Phonology project). Finally, I have added a third
approach using combined phonological methods, carried out in the London Borough of
Sutton and reported by Savage and Carless (2005), which was notable for its use of
learning support assistants.
All eleven of these approaches are reviewed below in alphabetical order, and
summarised in Table 6 (page 65). Wherever possible, effect sizes have been quoted, but
elsewhere ratio gains have been reported instead (see Section 1.5 for explanation of
effect sizes and ratio gains). In studies where control or comparison groups have been
employed, this is stated below, but, unfortunately, most of these studies did not involve
control or comparison groups.
3.3 Review of studies
3.3.1 AcceleRead AcceleWrite
AcceleRead AcceleWrite (Miles, 1994) is a computer-based phonological intervention
approach in which the child reads and memorises sentences displayed on a card, and
after saying them aloud types them into a computer which says each word as it is typed
and reads the whole sentence after the full stop has been entered. The sentences have
been constructed in accordance with particular phonic patterns (Clifford & Miles, 2004).
By hearing the words and sentences spoken back by the computer the child receives
immediate feedback on the accuracy of what they have typed. This approach, which is
highly structured and incorporates regular revision of material, can be used with any
suitable text-to-speech software, of which a wide range is commercially available. The
programme should ideally be used in short (preferably daily) sessions.
Brooks (2007) reports a number of unpublished intervention studies that have used
AcceleRead AcceleWrite, all of which have produced very, or fairly, substantial gains,
including one carried out in Jersey in 1993 in which 61 children with reading difficulties
used the programme for four weeks. Ratio gains of 8.3 for reading and 4.0 for spelling
56 Intervention for Dyslexia