Visualizing meaning: Literacy materials for dyslexic children

Dyslexic children experience a difficulty in learning to read at a level that is expected from their level of intelligence. As dyslexia is commonly characterized by a deficit in phonemic processing, many literacy intervention programs focus on developing skills in this area. However, language is processed by two separate cognitive subsystems: the verbal (language) and the nonverbal (imaging) [3]. Having strengths in visual processing and problem-solving [7], dyslexic learners may be able to use these abilities inherent in the nonverbal subsystem to more easily acquire those skills related to the verbal subsystem, with which they typically struggle. It is suggested here that common teaching strategies that pair concrete nouns with simple and literal visual explanations may be used to teach more complex verbal concepts to children with dyslexia. As verbal information becomes more demanding, it is likely that visual explanations will also become more complex. It is therefore important to understand how visual cues can be used to reduce ambiguity and to create meaning in visual explanations. Current research is exploring how children with reading difficulties use, read and interact with visual information. Through both preference and performance testing, the ways in which visual explanations can be used in the literacy education of dyslexic children will be investigated.