Abstract:

The article presents the results of a two-year study that verified the effectiveness of the Sfumato-Flowing Reading method of eliminating dyslexic problems in primary school students. Participants were primary school pupils who attended the 2nd to 5th grade of primary school who were diagnosed with dyslexia (according to DSM-5). N = 162, of which 69 were girls. The children were randomly divided into one group in which the Sfumato method was applied for one school year (experimental group) and another group in which standard care was applied, again for one school year (control group). We chose a classic experimental design to check the maturation and spontaneous healing processes. In the pre-test and post-test phase, we administered tests of reading, spelling accuracy in the transcribing of printed text, phonological skills, morphological skills, rapid automatized naming, short-term memory and eye movements. We have found the beneficial effect of the Sfumato method in (a) lower levels of reading skill, i.e., decoding, (b) a phonological test that did not necessitate the participation of executive processes; and (c) an auditory short-term memory test. Higher levels (in the area of language - reading comprehension or solving morphological problems; in the field of non-linguistics - in the antisaccadic test of eye movements) were not affected by Sfumato.

Keywords:

dyslexia, Sfumato, reading, spelling, eye movements