Learning Styles of Typical Readers and Dyslexic Adolescents

The present study examined the link between learning styles and dyslexia in secondary school students, using the Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic (VAK) learning styles model. According to the VAK model, most people possess a dominant or preferred learning style, however some people have a mixed and evenly balanced blend of the three styles. Our hypothesis was that differences would be revealed between students with dyslexia and their typical peers in preferred ways to learn. A total of 43 secondary school students formed the LD group (32 boys and 11 girls) who were diagnosed with dyslexia, and attended mainstream schools. A comparison group was formed of pupils who attended the same classes (N = 86), and were matched for age and gender with dyslexics (1 dyslexic: 2 control). The self-administered VAK test used to assess participant's predominant learning style. Although statistical significant differences between typical readers and students with dyslexia were not observed, there was a mixture of learning styles amongst the participants, indicating that students with dyslexia use more often multimodal approaches and possibly that is the reason they usually benefit from multi- sensory methods.