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Bijak Membaca — Applying Phonic Reading Technique and Multisensory

Approach with interactive multimedia for dyslexia children

Conference Paper · December 2012

DOI: 10.1109/CHUSER.2012.6504375

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 2012 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science & Engineering Research (CHUSER 2012), December 3-4, 2012, Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia

Bijak Membaca - Applying Phonic Reading

Technique and Multisensory Approach with
Interactive Multimedia for Dyslexia Children
Siti Zulaiha Ahmad, Nik Noor Amalina Amirah Nik Ludin, Hawa Mohd Ekhsan, Arifah Fasha
Rosmani, Mohammad Hafiz Ismail

Department of Computer Science

Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences
Universiti Teknologi MARA,
02600 Arau, Perlis
sitizulaiha@perlis.uitm.edu.my

Abstract— Reading difficulty is one of the major problems
faced by dyslexic children. Reading skill is the most crucial
ability as it is required in the upper level of discovery of
knowledge. In this research, Phonic Reading Technique and
Multisensory Approach are blended with interactive
multimedia, which incorporates multimedia elements such
as text, graphics, video, and animation. The manner of
applying those techniques in “Bijak Membaca” is discussed.
The contents of this application are specifically designed to
visualize letters, words, sentences, and pronunciations in the
Malay language for dyslexics, aged 7 – 8 years, with
awareness of their characteristics. In order to evaluate the
design of its content, heuristic testing is conducted among
multimedia lecturers and IT undergraduates. The result
reveals that the contents are well designed with the inclusion
of Phonic Reading Technique, Multisensory Approach, and
suitable multimedia elements. It is also concluded as
interesting, user-friendly, attractive, valuable, and
supportive.
Keywords—Phonic reading; Multisensory Approach;
Interactive multimedia; Dyslexic children; Heuristic testing
I. INTRODUCTION
The first step to explore the world of knowledge is by
actively engaging in reading books, magazines, articles,
and other materials. Unfortunately, children with learning
disabilities, especially dyslexia, usually have problems in
word recognition, which could hinder their ability to read
[1]. They are usually hampered by slow reading speed,
omission of words [2], and inaccurate reading [3].
Consequently, it causes inferiority complex, loss of
confidence and focus, and frustration among these
children [2].
In order to provide improved learning conditions for
dyslexic children, an appropriate reading tool that attracts
and captivates their attention is required to support their
learning process. It is very important to motivate and
integrate them in an enjoyable learning process.
Therefore, dyslexic children need extra support [4] in
terms of learning strategy to develop their skills in
reading. There are many learning strategies and their
effectiveness differs depending on the children
themselves. From the previous research, it is found that
by using existing teaching methods (traditional methods),
teachers cannot get much success in teaching dyslexic
children [5].
It is known that multimedia plays an important role in
teaching children with dyslexia [4]. In this study, the
Multisensory Approach and multimedia elements [6],
such as video, audio, animation, graphic, and image, are
used.
This research concentrates on designing and
developing a reading tool called “Bijak Membaca” to
assist dyslexic children in the reading process. The idea is
to provide a better learning strategy by applying the
Phonic Reading Technique in Malay language, blended
with the Multisensory Approach. These learning
strategies are implemented using multimedia technology
that is specifically designed for dyslexics aged 7 to 8
years.
The rest of this section is organized as follows: the
second section discusses the background of this study,
which includes the Phonic Reading Technique,
Multisensory Approach, dyslexia and multimedia. In the
next section, the focus is on implementation of learning
strategies in “Bijak Membaca”. The paper ends with
disclosing results and findings obtained from heuristic
testing.
II. BACKGROUND
A. Phonic Reading Technique
Phonic skill is one of the learning strategies that is
suitable for those with learning disabilities, dyslexics in
specific [7][2]. Phonic is defined as a system that
emphasizes on letter-sound correspondences along with
word-recognition activities [8]. Phonetic Approach is
proven as a natural way in learning to read [9] and it is
recommended by the National Reading Panel in US as
one of the key features of reading instructions [10].
Phonic reading is a systematic approach that decodes
letter-sound pronunciations [9] by breaking words into

978-1-4673-4617-7/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 554

 2012 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science & Engineering Research (CHUSER 2012), December 3-4, 2012, Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia
corresponding sounds. Compared to the Syllable Spelling
Technique, in phonic reading children just need to
remember 26 letters (a – z) and its sound [9]. There are
two different categories of phonemes, vowels (a, e, i, o,
u) with different pronunciations of “e” known as “e
pepet”(/e) and “e taling” (/Ɲ), and also consonants (p, t,
k, b, d, g, c, j, s, h, 1, r, m, n, , ƾ , w, y/) [11]. They are
not forced to remember all the different syllables that
definitely will put some burden on the children,
especially dyslexics. For example, in the Malay language
‘a’ is pronounced as “aaa” and ‘b’ is pronounced as
“beh”. Combinations of these letters is called a syllable
and pronounced as “beh - aaa - ba”. Previous researches
show that the Phonic Reading Technique that emphasizes
on letter-sound, is proven to improve reading skill [10]
[12].
B. Multisensory Approach
There are two ways to teach dyslexics, either by using
the traditional teaching approach or Multisensory
Teaching Approach. The traditional method is not
effective for dyslexic children [13] as they need to stay
focused on the information that is being given to them
[7]. Unable to stay focused for long durations [2] and
having short term memory problems [7][13] are major
contributors to the ineffectiveness of traditional methods.
A better approach to teach dyslexics is by applying
the Multisensory Method in the teaching and learning
process by teachers [7] as it consists of strings of
multisensory strategies (linking of eyes, ears, voice, and
hand movements) [6]. The Multisensory Method is
proven to be an effective method to teach dyslexic
children as they seem to interact with teaching tools and
apply extra creativity towards their learning contents [6].
The strength of the Multisensory Approach lies in its
ability to attract dyslexics’ attention, as they usually have
problems staying focused during the learning process [7].
C. Dyslexia
People who have different categories of disabilities
can be classified into a few specific groups such as
dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxics [1][2][4]. These
types of syndromes have similar problems such as
difficulty in speaking, writing, language problems,
arithmetic confusion [6][14][15], emotional, and
behavioral disorder [1][5][4].
Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty and a
disability [7][16] that is faced by a person. They show
symptoms of difficulties such as in reading, writing,
listening, and speaking [1][15][17], which can cause
inferiority complex among dyslexics, especially children.
Generally, dyslexics’ characteristics are different from
one child to another and characterized by unusual balance
of skills [2]. However, they are always being referred to
the cluster of symptoms like having difficulties with
specific learning skills, mostly reading [13].
According to related literature, this syndrome is
recognized as specific learning disabilities associated to
the neurological system that cover a wide range of
reading difficulties, [6] but does not imply low
555
intelligence or poor educational potential. It is shown that
dyslexia is related to learning disabilities only [2].
Therefore, based on the above definitions, dyslexia
can be concluded as specific learning disabilities such as
reading, writing, speaking, and listening that might occur
in early age. Dyslexics need support and more attention
from people around them to encourage them so that they
can live like other people.
D. Interactive Multimedia
Multimedia as an interactive application can help
dyslexics to reduce their weaknesses by focusing on their
limitations and also on their potentials [18]. It is more
concise and clear; and helps them out from their
problems. Multimedia consists of interactive elements
that are usually used to attract viewers. There are several
combinations of multimedia such as text, audio, video,
graphic, and interactive content. It can play the role of a
secondary learning tool to enhance understanding among
children and interest in their learning process.
Multimedia has the potential to reduce or remove
most of the problems that are faced by dyslexics because
it uses interactive multimedia elements such as graphics
and auditory devices for development [7]. Besides,
multimedia can be a teaching computer [8] because it
creates a fun learning environment for dyslexics. The
elements used in multimedia application such as text,
color, images, audios, video, animation, and graphics can
attract children to stay focused and have fun during the
learning session. In addition, it is also used on the
concept of teaching and understanding for dyslexics
[4][19].
This may contribute to improvement in their learning
process by providing extrinsic motivation for task
completion and also help to increase motivation [4].
III. IMPLEMENTATION OF LEARNING STRATEGIES IN
“BIJAK MEMBACA”
The main focus in this section is to discuss the
implementation of the reading technique and learning
approach using the interactive multimedia application,
“Bijak Membaca”. The design of “Bijak Membaca” is
shown in Figure 1, which refers to the content of the
application. Basically, “Bijak Membaca” consists of two
main modules; i) “Tutorial” and ii) “Aktiviti”. In the first
module, there are four sub-modules, which comprise
“Huruf”, “Suku Kata”, “Perkataan”, and “Ayat”.
Interactive activity is the main focus in the second
module that consists of “Latihan Suai”, “Latihan Sebut”,
and “Latihan Baca”.
 2012 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science & Engineering Research (CHUSER 2012), December 3-4, 2012, Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia
Figure 1: Design of “Bijak Membaca”
Figure 2 depicts the contents of the interactive
multimedia application that applies learning strategies
which are the Phonic Reading Technique and
Multisensory Approach.
Figure 2. Adaptation of Learning Strategies
Researchers incorporate the first module with the
Phonic Reading Technique, which involves letters,
syllables, words, and sentences. Dyslexics have a few
critical letters that they are confused with. These critical
letters are b, d, m, n, p, q, u, and w [20]. Dyslexics are
usually confused with small letters, and therefore a
decision is made to integrate a letter with a picture to
ensure that they recognize the letter. In the example of the
interface design shown in Figure 3, each letter is provided
with the letter-sound using the Phonic Reading Technique
and embedded with video that shows the pronunciation
technique. By using a pointing device, dyslexics can just
move over the lettered object to hear the phonic
pronunciation. Besides that, the embedded video of each
letter can be repetitively played to practice the
pronunciation technique. In some ways, it shows that the
Multisensory Approach is also applied with the linking of
eyes, ears, voice, and hand movements [6].
556
Figure 3. Letter-sound using Phonic Reading technique interface design
As stated earlier in this section, there are three
different types of exercises that apply the Multisensory
Approach in the “Aktiviti” Module. Firstly, pronouncing
activity page (“Latihan Sebut”), helps the user to
differentiate the correct pronunciation of each critical
letter. Figure 4 shows the interface designs of different
categories in “Latihan Sebut”, which are letter, syllable,
and sentence. The user has to click on the letter and it
navigates to the next screen with the presence of sound.
By doing this activity, dyslexics link their sensory organs
such as eyes, ears, and hand movements interactively.
The reason for developing this page is because dyslexics
have problems with reading and recognizing letters.
Figure 4. Interface Designs of “Sebut” Activity
Secondly, drag and drop activity is chosen to give
different interaction styles to dyslexics. The user needs to
pick any letter provided and drag it to a correct place,
based on the given picture (Figure 5). Besides drag and
drop, the user can also click on the syllables to complete
the task. These exercises are implemented by adapting the
Multisensory Approach as the user needs to synchronize
his hand movements by dragging the object to targeted
areas with the coordination of his eyes.
 2012 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science & Engineering Research (CHUSER 2012), December 3-4, 2012, Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia

Figure 6 shows the result of the Heuristic Evaluation

based on the content and feedback on structure. The
result shows that most of the evaluators agree that this
application is well designed with understandable content
(mean=4.67) and reading technique (mean= 4.5), and
suitable multisensory activities (mean=4.83).

Figure 5. Drag and Drop Activity

Lastly, the reading activity is designed to enforce the

Phonic Reading Technique with the application of the
Multisensory Approach. Children need to read the given
passage and be guided with pre-recorded voice using the
correct Phonic Reading Technique. Users have to link
their voice, ears, and eyes to perform this activity. Figure 6. Result of Heuristic Evaluation on Content and
Structure

IV. RESULT & FINDING Based on the feedback shown in Figure 7, multimedia
elements are designed and integrated very well as most of
In order to evaluate the interface design and usability them agree with the interface design (mean=4.67), sound
aspect of the application, Hueristic Evaluation is (mean=4.73), and navigation (mean=4.1) of the
conducted. Heuristic Evaluation is an informal usability application.
analysis and it is recommended to be done with between
three and five evaluators to view the interface design and
give their comments [21]. The evaluators should be
experts in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and other
similar project areas. For this study, this evaluation is
performed by multimedia lecturers from the Computer
Science Department and IT undergraduates who are
pursuing a course in HCI (Multimedia). The reason of
choosing those students as evaluators is to acquire their
feedbacks and comments based on their theoretical and
practical knowledge in HCI.Their task is to look into the
adaptation of learning strategies and multimedia content
in “Bijak Membaca”. They are given a set of
questionnaires that consists of five sections. The criteria
that need to be evaluated are i) content and structure Figure 7. Result of Heuristic Evaluation on Multimedia
(adaptation of phonic reading and Multisensory Interactivity
Approach), ii) interface design, sound, navigation
(multimedia elements), and iii) general feedback about General feedback results (refer to Figure 8) obtained from
the application. The scale used is from 1 to 5. Table 1 this evaluation show that “Bijak Membaca” is accepted as
shows the scale with the description that is included in an interesting (mean=4.33), user-friendly (mean=4.00),
the questionnaires. and attractive (mean=4.33) tool. It is also evaluated as
TABLE 1: RANK OF ANSWERS
valuable (mean=4.67) and supportive (mean=4.67).

Rank Value
Strongly Agree 5
Agree 4
Neutral 3
Disagree 2
Strongly Disagree 1

557
 2012 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science & Engineering Research (CHUSER 2012), December 3-4, 2012, Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia
Figure 8. Result of Heuristic Evaluation on General
Feedback
V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION FOR
FUTURE STUDY
“Bijak Membaca” is an interactive multimedia
application that blends the Phonic Reading Technique
and Multisensory Approach to improve dyslexics reading
skill. Results obtained from Heuristic Evaluation indicate
that this application successfully integrates those learning
strategies as most of them agree with the content and
structure. It shows that this application is designed and
arranged in a proper way that suits dyslexics’ preferences.
Credit is also given for the use of multimedia elements in
this application as its interface design is easy to
understand with good navigation arrangement. Generally,
most of the evaluators agree that this application can give
a significant impact to dyslexics as it is interesting, user-
friendly, attractive, supportive, and valuable.
“Bijak Membaca” can be an alternative reading tool
for dyslexics to improve their reading with the
effectiveness of the Phonic Reading Technique and
Multisensory Approach. However, there are some
improvements that are suggested by the evaluators such
as inclusion of all letters instead of critical letters for the
dyslexics, different types of exercises in reading activity
and entertainment elements. In future, this research can
be extended with the inclusion of Intelligent Multisensory
Approach as part of the content so that dyslexics can fully
utilize their verbal, visual and psycho-motor abilities.
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