Month: November 2023

Many people involved in diagnosing and treating German-speaking children with developmental dyslexia had already sorely missed them: the colourful spherical lights, the cute little blobs of the learning app Prosodiya which help primary and lower secondary school pupils overcome their problems with spelling. In return, the players help the little lights to free their country – Prosodiya – from the gloomy fog that is making its inhabitants feel sad. But not only is the app back in app stores – it is now even available free of charge, giving all families equal access to this support programme. At the same time, the results of the scientific study of the app’s efficacy have been published in the journal Learning and Instruction.

Prosodiya operates on the basis of speech rhythm and syllable stress awareness

Prosodiya is an educational game for mobile devices that was developed and scientifically analysed by a team of linguists, computer scientists and psychologists at the University of Tübingen. In around 100 levels, learners develop their spelling skills on the basis of speech rhythm and syllable stress awareness. This is important as developmental dyslexia is often caused by incorrect perception of stress patterns. For instance, to be able to spell the German word gewinnen correctly, children must recognize that the word has three syllables (ge-win-nen), the second of which is stressed. In addition, the vowel of the second, stressed syllable is short. Pupils need to understand this in order to be able to apply the correct rule: The short vowel i is followed by a double consonant (nn). Primary school pupils can use Prosodiya without the support of parents or teachers: The colourful spherical lights themselves explain the rules and practise tasks with players.

Study assesses feasibility and efficacy of training with the app

The study by Heiko Holz, Manuel Ninaus, Jakob Schwerter, Cora Parrisius, Benedikt Beuttler, Katharina Brandelik and Detmar Meurers detailed in Learning and Instruction centres around three questions:

1. Feasibility:
   Can primary school pupils use the app without support of caregivers?
2. Efficacy:
   Does the use of Prosodiya improve reading and spelling skills?
3. Validity:
   Does the use of the app confirm the assumption on which it is based? In other words, are perception of syllable stress and speech rhythm indeed related to reading and spelling skills?

116 primary school pupils take part in the study

In total, data from 116 second to fourth graders aged 7 to 11 years were analysed. The children were asked to use Prosodiya at home for eight to ten weeks, five days a week, for around 20 minutes a day. The reading and spelling skills of most participants were below average, so training with Prosodiya served a double purpose: It provided data for the study and provided help for families seeking to support their children in improving their spelling skills. All participants attended schools in the Tübingen area and, in addition to training with Prosodiya, underwent three appointments during which their performance was tested. The study followed the procedure shown in Figure 2:

1. Test 1: Assessment of reading and spelling skills in all participants prior to the beginning of the study.
2. Training phase 1: Half of the participants (group 1) train their spelling skills with Prosodiya, the other half (group 2) do not yet have access to the app.
3. Test 2: Assessment of reading and spelling skills in both groups.
4. Training phase 2: Group 2 now train their spelling skills with Prosodiya, the other half (group 1) no longer have access to the app.
5. Test 3: Assessment of reading and spelling skills in both groups.

Study relies on reading and spelling tests as well as in-game data

The study largely relies on standardised reading and spelling tests which are also used in schools and in educational therapy. In addition, several tests and questionnaires were developed specifically for the purpose of the study. In-game data used in the study consists, for example, of the scores achieved by players, as well as the times and repetitions required to complete the various levels.

1. Standardised reading and spelling tests: DRT 2/3/4 (Diagnostischer Rechtschreibtest für 2./3./4. Klassen – Diagnostic Spelling Test for 2nd/3rd/4th Grade), SLS 2-9 (Salzburger Lese-Screening für die Schulstufen 2-9 – Salzburg Reading Screening for Grades 2-9), SLRT-II (Lese- und Rechtschreibtest – Reading and Spelling Test)
2. Self-designed tests und questionnaires: Cloze spelling test, questionnaires for parents and children
3. In-game data: Scores attained, times required for levels, repetitions of levels

Primary school pupils are able to use Prosodiya with support from caregivers

The primary school pupils who took part in the study did so with some stamina, even if they did not strictly follow the defined training plan. On average …

… they trained for 27.9 days during the eight to ten weeks of training.

… they practised for 18.5 minutes a day.

… they reached level 69 of the approximately 100 levels of the game.

… they practised 161.7 levels including repetitions.

… they needed 3.0 minutes for one level.

… they achieved 138.6 of the possible 150 points per level.

… they managed to solve 8.2 tasks on their first attempt.

The children enjoyed the training and stated that the app was easy to use. Training with Prosodiya had a positive effect on the children’s sense of self-efficacy: They experienced that practising with the app actually helped them improve their skills. There was also positive feedback on the game from parents and teachers.

Training with Prosodiya improves spelling skills

The study confirms the positive experiences reported by children, parents and teachers. In the diagnostic spelling test DRT 2/3/4, all learners improved in all phases of the study – even in the phases in which the respective group did not use Prosodiya. But training with the Prosodiya app led to significantly higher learning gains (see Figure 3). The two groups improved by more than three and four points respectively on the T-score scale during the training period.

The T-score scale is used to represent results in many standardised tests: Its median is a T-score of 50, with a standard deviation of 10. In other words, if you move ten points to the left and right of the scale starting from the median, you define the range that is considered to represent average results. 68.2 % of a norm group – in this case 68.2 % of second/third or fourth graders – achieve results which are within the range of one standard deviation to the right and left of the median. A T-score between 40 and 60 is therefore considered to be average. Bearing this in mind, the dimension of an increase by several points on the T-score scale in just eight to ten weeks becomes clear.

In addition, the research group around Heiko Holz separately evaluated those tasks from the standardised test that related to vowel length. These were the tasks most closely related to the training tasks in the Prosodiya app. The benefits of the app were clearly recognisable here as well, with the group that had trained with Prosodiya in phase 1 achieving the greatest gain in competence. All results relating to data from the standardised test, DRT 2/3/4, were significant, which means that it is highly unlikely, even virtually impossible, that these results are due to chance. The fact that spelling skills of the group that had trained with Prosodiya first did not decline in the second phase of the study suggests that the training has a positive long-term effect on spelling.

The spelling test developed specifically for the study largely confirmed the results of the standardised test: With one exception, there were always significant differences between the group that had trained with Prosodiya and the group that had not done so during the phase in question.

Prosodiya improves syllable stress awareness

Learners were also able to significantly improve their perception of stressed and unstressed syllables while training with Prosodiya. In both groups, there were learning gains in all phases of the study, but training with the app led to a greater increase in competence (see Figure 4). Here, too, results were highly significant. In other words, it is virtually impossible for differences between the groups to be due to anything other than the fact that one group trained with Prosodiya and the other did not.

Study does not show improvement of reading skills

The researchers were not able to conclusively show that the use of Prosodiya leads to an increase in reading skills. With one exception, there were learning gains in both groups in all phases of the study. However, these were not statistically significant, which means that the increase in competence cannot be unequivocally linked to the use of Prosodiya.

Syllable stress awareness is essential

The basic assumption underlying the development of the app was that the correct perception of stressed and unstressed syllables influences spelling skills: Learners with reading/spelling difficulties demonstrate poorer syllable stress awareness than pupils who do not experience such difficulties. For this reason, the participants’ syllable stress awareness scores were correlated with the reading and spelling data collected. In fact, scores for syllable stress awareness correlated with all scores of the reading and spelling tests. The higher the scores for syllable stress awareness, the better the results for spelling, but also for reading fluency and word and pseudo-word reading. There was a negative correlation with the errors occurring when marking vowel length: The higher the score for syllable stress awareness, the fewer errors were made. The assumption on which the development of Prosodiya is based could therefore be confirmed.

Prosodiya is a suitable diagnostic and intervention tool for children with dyslexia

The researchers observed similar correlations between in-game data and reading and spelling skills: The higher the scores and the less time players needed to attain them, the better they performed on the reading and spelling tests. The researchers conclude that the Prosodiya app’s approach is suitable for supporting pupils with poor reading and spelling skills. It may even be possible to use the app for diagnostic purposes.

Free access to all levels for teachers and educational therapists

Since the relaunch of Prosodiya, the app has been available in the app stores free of charge. However, even a free download would mean that teachers and educational therapists would have to progress through the entire training programme in order to gain an insight into all types of tasks. Prosodiya therefore offers so-called “Alles frei” (“all free”) profiles, with which all training tasks can be viewed and played without having solved all previous tasks.

Is Prosodiya a suitable tool for learners without dyslexia?

Prosodiya offers an interesting, motivating and valuable way of supporting children diagnosed with developmental dyslexia, particularly since access to the app is now extremely easy thanks to it being free of charge. Lower secondary school pupils also enjoy practising with the colourful spherical lights. It would be interesting to concentrate on how training with Prosodiya affects learners with average spelling skills: A further study would certainly be worthwhile in this respect. The use of Prosodiya in German as a Foreign Language lessons is also of interest: Particularly with native speakers of languages whose spelling is not based on syllable stress, this might support learning motivation and lead to more effective spelling training.

Holz, H., Ninaus, M., Schwerter, J., Parrisius, C., Beuttler, B., Brandelik, K., & Meurers, D. (2023). A Digital Game-Based Training Improves Spelling in German Primary School Children – A Randomized Controlled Field Trial. Learning and Instruction, 87, 101771.