TITLE:
Phonological and Cognitive Reading Related Skills as Predictors of Word Reading and Reading Comprehension among Arabic Dyslexic Children
AUTHORS:
Smail Layes, Robert Lalonde, Soulef Mecheri, Mohamed Rebaï
KEYWORDS:
Word Recognition, Phonological Awareness, Cognitive Predictors, Reading Comprehension
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.6 No.1,
January
14,
2015
ABSTRACT: The
present study sought to identify cognitive reading-related skills (i.e. visual
attention, rapid automatized naming and working memory) that might distinguish
dyslexic Arabic children from skilled ones in 4th and 5th grades, and to examine the potential contribution of these factors to word
reading and reading comprehension. Two experiments were conducted for this
purpose. In Experiment 1, normal readers (N = 108) and dyslexics (23) were
given a set of literacy tasks, visual attention, and rapid automatized naming.
The results indicated that dyslexic children exhibited lower reading-related
skills than controls. Visual attention and phonological processing were able to
predict word reading. Experiment 2 was carried out on 36 dyslexic children
compared to chronological-age controls. This experiment was designed to assess
the relation between phonological awareness and working memory with word recognition
and reading comprehension. Results showed significant differences between
groups in literacy scores. In addition, inter-correlations indicated a strong
relation between word recognition and reading comprehension on one hand and
phonological awareness and verbal working memory on the other. Regression
analyses showed that rapid naming, visual attention, and verbal working memory
were significantly associated with literacy. The findings underscored the
importance of cognitive skills in the acquisition of Arabic literacy and
emphasized persistent difficulties in dyslexic children from multiple causes.