The present study compared the effectiveness of multisensory and traditional approach in teaching dyslexic children learning to read and write a non-alphabetic script, Chinese. Thirty-six Chinese dyslexic children of Grade 3 to Grade 5 were assigned to the Multisensory Training Group (n = 17) and Traditional Training Group (n = 19) respectively. The two groups received different training programs in Chinese reading and writing. The Multisensory Training Group, as compared to the Traditional Training Group, showed greater improvement after training in reading, writing and understanding the trained and nontrained materials. The results suggest that multisensory training benefits dyslexic children in learning to read and write Chinese.

Key wards: multisensory training, developmental dyslexia, reading Chinese, writing Chinese