Document Type: Conference Papers
Year published: 2007
Conference: Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference: Culture, Knowledge and Understanding (2007: Singapore)
The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of using computer and flash cards to present the reading stimulus materials to children with learning disabilities. Twenty children from Years 4 and 5 (at the ages of 10 and 11) were selected by their teachers with the criterion being that they were judged as having difficulties in reading. These children were enrolled in the Intensive Remedial Teaching Programme for Children with Learning Difficulties (IRTP), Integrated Classes or Remedial Programmes of the New Funding Mode. A total of 20 studetns from two Hong Kong primary schools were recruited for the study. The students in each school were randomly divided into two groups. One group of the students learned to read under the computer-based programme and that of the other group under the flash card programme. The stimulus materials of this study were three lists of Chinese characters. Each list consisted of 30 characters with similar orthographic features. This training programme lasted for six weeks. Comparison of the test results showed that the students in the computer-based programme outperformed those in the flash card programme.