Improving the Reading and Writing Skills of Students with Mild Intellectual Disability: The Effectiveness of Infographics

Abstract

Infographics are considered an effective educational tool to simplify complex information and make it more understandable and absorbable. However, applying this technology to teaching students with an intellectual disability (ID) may be challenging. The current research aimed to verify the effectiveness of the three types of infographics (static, motion and interactive) in improving the reading and writing skills of a sample of 48 students aged 7-10 with mild ID (MID) in an intellectual education programme attached to general education schools in Al-Ahsa in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A quasi-experimental design was taken, in which the research sample was divided into four groups of equal numbers, namely, three experimental groups and a control group. The researchers prepared a reading and writing skills scale (RWSC), verified its validity and reliability, and applied it to the three research groups before and after implementing the three training programmes. The results of the research showed the effectiveness of the three types of infographics (interactive, motion, and static) in developing the reading and writing skills of the research sample. The study suggests using three types of infographics to teach reading and writing to students with MID. It suggests further exploration of interactive infographics in future research to improve their skills. The use of these educational infographics in academic subjects saves teachers time and effort, while using them in textbooks helps students retain and understand information more easily. Further research is needed to explore the use of interactive infographics as a teaching tool.