title: [Efficacy of decoding training for children with difficulty reading hiragana].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study aimed to clarify the efficacy of decoding training focusing on the correspondence between written symbols and their readings for children with difficulty reading hiragana (Japanese syllabary).
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-five children with difficulty reading hiragana were selected from among 367 first-grade elementary school students using a reading aloud test and were then divided into intervention (n=15) and control (n=20) groups. The intervention comprised 5 minutes of decoding training each day for a period of 3 weeks using an original program on a personal computer. Reading time and number of reading errors in the reading aloud test were compared between the groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intervention group showed a significant shortening of reading time (F(1,33)=5.40, p<0.05, two-way ANOVA) compared to the control group. However, no significant difference in the number of errors was observed between the two groups. Ten children in the control group who wished to participate in the decoding training were included in an additional study;as a result, improvement of the number of reading errors was observed (t= 2.863, p< 0.05, paired t test), but there was no improvement in reading time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Decoding training was found to be effective for improving both reading time and reading errors in children with difficulty reading hiragana.
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, Faculty of Regional Sciences, Tottori University, Tottori.
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Uchiyama
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Ayumi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wakamiya
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hirasawa
authors.forename: Naotake
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iketani
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koeda
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D044466:Asian People; D002648:Child; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004493:Education; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D011932:Reading; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014956:Writing