Word Reading and Processing of the Identity and Order of Letters by Children with Low Vision and Sighted Children

Two aspects of word reading were investigated in two word-naming experiments: the identification of the constituent letters of a word and the processing of letter-order information. Both experiments showed qualitative differences between children with low vision and sighted children, but no quantitative or qualitative differences within the group of children with low vision.

Reading by Children with Low Vision

This study of the reading of text found that despite their lower reading speed on a reading-comprehension task, the children with low vision comprehended texts at least as well as did the sighted children. Children with low vision need more time to read and comprehend a text, but they seem to use this time with enough efficiency to process the semantic, as well as the syntactic, information.

Visual Input and Orthographic Knowledge in Word Reading of Children with Low Vision

This study investigated whether the difficulties with reading of children with low vision are a matter of reduced visual input or also a consequence of a lack of orthographic knowledge because of less reading experience. The results indicated that reduced visual input is the only cause of these children's lower reading performance.

Acquisition of Literacy Skills by Young Children who are Blind: Results from the ABC Braille Study

The Alphabetic Braille and Contracted Braille Study examined the reading and writing skills of young braille-reading students. Students who were introduced to more contractions earlier in instruction performed better on reading measures, such as vocabulary, decoding, and comprehension, but all students did well in spelling. Thus, the authors conclude that literacy instruction should focus primarily on basic reading skills.

Verbal working memory and reading abilities among students with visual impairment

AIM

This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM) and reading abilities among students with visual impairment (VI). Seventy-five students with VI (visually impairment and blindness), aged 10-15 years old participated in the study, of whom 44 were visually impaired and 31 were blind.

METHODS

The participants' reading ability was assessed with the standardized reading ability battery Test-A (Padeliadu & Antoniou, 2008) and their verbal working memory ability was assessed with the listening recall task from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (Pickering et al., 2001).

RESULTS-IMPLICATIONS

Data analysis indicated a strong correlation between verbal WM and decoding, reading comprehension and overall reading ability among the participants with VI, while no correlation was found between reading fluency and verbal WM. The present study points out the important role of verbal WM in reading among students who are VI and carries implications for the education of those individuals.

Comparison of reading performance between visually impaired and normally sighted students in Malaysia

The aim of this study is to compare reading performance between visually impaired and normally sighted school children. Participants ( n = 299) were divided into three groups: normal vision (NV, n = 193), visually impaired print reader (PR, n = 52), and Braille reader (BR, n = 54). Reading performance was determined by measuring reading rate and comprehension. ANOVA was used to compare the results. A statistically significant difference was found in reading rate between the three groups ( p < 0.0001). The BR had the lowest reading rate compared to other groups. Only a small percentage of the visually impaired children were able to achieve a reading rate within the normal values of normally sighted children. Results of the comprehension test showed no significant difference in the scores of the three groups ( p = 0.232). The findings of this study suggests that visually impaired students required a longer time to read and understand a text and this has implications on the time given to them, especially during examinations.

Low vision aids for visually impaired children: a perception-action perspective

It is a widely accepted belief in clinical practice that children with a visual impairment can profit from the use of a low vision aid (LVA). However, we found a considerable gap in our scientific understanding of LVA use, particularly in young children. This is the reason for the analysis presented in this paper. A selected overview of LVA use in adults is given, from which valuable insights are taken. Additionally, an action perspective for analysing LVA use is discussed as well as the results of tool-use studies in children. Mainly based on these three ingredients, we developed a conceptual framework for LVA use. The framework consists of three interacting relations between LVA, child and task. Performance of a particular child on a specific task with a certain LVA is constrained by the following three reciprocal and dynamic relations: the Child-to-Task relation (related to goal-information), the Child-to-LVA relation (related to control-information), and the LVA-to-Task relation (related to topology information).

Spelling performance of visually impaired adults

Visual processes undoubtedly play an important role in print reading as well as in spelling. In the present study we intend to compare the spelling performance of visually impaired individuals (both individuals who are blind and individuals with low vision) with that of their fully sighted peers. An analysis of errors (misspelled words and spelling mistakes) was conducted. The influence of certain factors — such as gender, age, educational level and the most common medium of reading — over spelling performance was also assessed. Our results suggest that the severity of the visual disability appears to have a negative effect on the spelling performance of visually impaired adults, although the number of errors declines as the subject's level of education increases. Blind or severely visually impaired subjects who used braille frequently seem to perform better at spelling compared to those who rely on other media. Adults with low vision who use magnifying lenses frequently seem to make more spelling mistakes than those who use braille, large print, CCTV or the computer (screen-reading or screen-magnification software).

Reading errors made by children with low vision*

Previous research has shown that, on average, children with low vision lag their sighted peers in general reading development (in terms of speed, accuracy and comprehension). This study sought to examine this apparent lag by comparing the reading profiles of 25 normally sighted readers (mean age 8 years 8 months) with 25 low vision readers. The children were tested using a reading test (the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability, NARA) and were matched on the reading accuracy score produced by the test. Therefore in terms of the reading accuracy scores (and reading ages) derived from the NARA both groups were the same. The low vision readers were on average older than the normally sighted children (mean = 10 years, 5 months). When the reading profile (i.e. accuracy, comprehension and speed) was examined in the same analysis no significant effect was revealed [d.f. = 1, 48; F = 0.05; p > 0.1], but a general lag for these children is suggested (in keeping with previous research). However, a closer analysis of the reading error profile revealed the most common reading errors made by all readers in the analysis were either mispronunciations or substitutions. The low vision readers were more prone to making substitution errors than mispronunciations and the reverse was true for normally sighted readers [d.f. = 1, 48; F = 7.1; p < 0.05]. This indicates that the reading strategies adopted by low vision readers may differ from those of normally sighted readers of the same apparent reading ability.