“Sawaru Glyph” is a haptic reading program developed in Japan. The word “sawaru” means “to touch” in Japanese. We use haptics (active touch perception) to conduct effective reading training for dyslexia.
The causes of reading and writing difficulties associated with dyslexia include weak connections between letters and sounds, challenges in recognizing words at the spelling level, difficulty in remembering letter shapes, and slow RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming). Sawaru Glyph addresses and improves these cognitive weaknesses by using multisensory learning through haptics.
With its innovative haptic-based learning program, Sawaru Glyph aims to support many people around the world who struggle with reading and writing.
Inquiries
We accept inquiries regarding the following:
- Want to know if Sawaru Glyph is suitable for use.
- Want to know how to use Sawaru Glyph.
- Want to receive the guidance program from a speech-language pathologist.
- Considering introducing Sawaru Glyph in clinics or schools.
- Requests for lectures or interviews.
Sawaru Glyph Learning Program
The Sawaru Glyph program can be conducted at home by using specially designed haptic reading materials along with video and audio resources. To facilitate home implementation, we include easy-to-understand instruction manuals and evaluation sheets to measure progress.
The program provides a step-by-step haptic reading approach, starting from basic letter shapes, moving on to simple letter-sound spellings, and progressing to more complex spellings. Through haptic reading, the brain’s letter recognition network is formed, enhancing cognitive functions related to letter and word recognition and reducing the cognitive load of letter recall, thereby promoting fluent reading and writing skills.
The Sawaru Glyph material set can be purchased online. Initially, we recommend purchasing the starter kit, which is designed to teach letters and spelling following phonics principles.
Additionally, you can opt for paid online guidance and evaluations by a speech-language pathologist.
Effects of Sawaru Glyph
By utilizing the effects of haptics, Sawaru Glyph promotes fluent reading and enhances four cognitive functions related to letter recall. It helps improve the cognitive vulnerabilities of dyslexia.
Haptics has the following three functions:
- Haptic feedback enhances attention to the target and strengthens memory traces.
- Haptics integrates with visual information in the brain to form concrete, multimodal images.
- Haptics possesses characteristics of both visual representation (parallel) and phonological representation (sequential), serving to connect the two.
By utilizing these functions of haptics, the neural networks involved in reading and writing abilities in the brain are strengthened.
1. Formation of a precise and robust mental image of letter shapes
It has been found that not only seeing letters and symbols, but also engaging with them through haptics while seeing promotes awareness of their shapes, enhancing memory images. By utilizing haptics to interact with the letters, attention is more strongly focused on their shapes, making it easier to leave memory traces. Furthermore, research shows that haptics and vision share a common neural basis in the brain and are cognitively integrated. Incorporating haptics allows for multi-sensory memory encoding.
2. Formation of word form memory (chunking)
By receiving haptic feedback on the spelling (sequence of letters) while reading, chunking of letter sequences in memory is promoted. This enables efficient formation of word form memory. Once the word form memory is established in the mind, it becomes easier to read texts.
3. Formation of associative memory between letters and sounds
Dyslexia often involves difficulty in associating letters with sounds. While memory formation between letters and sounds is promoted by reading aloud alone, the process is further enhanced by combining it with the video and audio resources used in the haptic reading program. By providing simultaneous haptic (touch-based) interaction with letters and auditory information, more effective formation of associative memory between letters and sounds is achieved.
4. The Effect of RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming) Enhancement
RAN refers to the ability to efficiently retrieve and name visual information, such as pictures or numbers. It is known that children with dyslexia tend to have lower naming speed. Sawaru Glyph is the first program in the world to confirm the improvement of RAN through haptic reading practice. A hypothesis suggests that reading meaningful words while engaging in tactile interaction enables the creation of a bypass within the semantic network, linking the visual lexicon associated with letter and word forms and the phonological lexicon tied to spoken words. This bypass improves the recall of letter forms, which serves as a cognitive cue to facilitate the recall of words (phonological information).
Target Users and Materials
Sawaru Glyph is intended for both children and adults with dyslexia. It is also applicable to those who struggle with reading, even if they do not have dyslexia.
It is suitable for individuals facing the following difficulties:
- Inability to read fluently
- Fatigue when reading texts
- Inability to remember word spellings
- Difficulty understanding basic math concepts
Highly Imaginable Words and Short Sentences Edition
The Sawaru Glyph (Highly Imaginable Words and Short Sentences Edition) is a next-step learning material following the Phonics Edition. This material enhances the spelling and word shape memory learned in the Phonics Edition by engaging in haptic reading of sentences composed of highly imaginable words. Additionally, our clinical research suggests that seeing, touching, and reading aloud highly imaginable words and sentences may improve RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming), which is crucial for reading functions.
Number Concepts and Basic Arithmetic Materials
It is known that dyslexia has a high overlap with dyscalculia (math learning difficulties). In this version, haptic reading is used to learn the shapes of numbers and to build an image of the quantities associated with them. Users also learn about numerical changes involved in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through hands-on haptic learning. This helps to develop foundational skills for mathematical ability.