Dyslexia: effective technologies in the recovery of the read&write ability

Abstract

In this paper, we wonder whether, to what extent and in which contexts technologies can be considered effective in the recovery of the read&write ability in cases of dyslexia. For this purpose a research on Google Scholar was accomplished aimed at identifying, according to the typical hierarchy
of relevance adopted in an evidence-based perspective, first meta-analysis and systematic reviews, then critical reviews, and finally individual experimental researches with big sample.
At the end of the research three major critical reviews and six individual researches emerged. All of them are carried out from 2004 until today, and are related to speech synthesis, speech recognition, Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI), hypermedia and multimedia electronic text, programs of reading and spelling and phonological awareness. Although many critical issues remain open and the results are difficult to generalize, given to the differences between the contexts and the languages of the researches, the study shows that the
most effective technologies for dyslexia are the drill and practice software for phonological learning, the speech recognition software and other tools to support electronic writing.