Phonological awareness deficits in Arabic-speaking children with learning disabilities

Abstract

BackgroundPhonological awareness refers to the language ability to perceive and manipulate the sounds of spoken words. It is an understanding of the structure of spoken language -that it is made up of words, and that words consist of syllables, rhymes, and sounds. The presence of a relationship between performance in phonological awareness tasks and reading ability is undisputed. Materials and methods100 normal children together with 30 learning -disabled children were evaluated with the Arabic phonological awareness test to detect their performance on phonological awareness. ResultsA large amount of evidence has been accumulated to show that the more knowledge children have about the constituent sounds of words, the better they tend to be at reading. AimMany studies have been conducted to detect phonological awareness de cits in Englishspeaking children, but very few studies have been conducted on Arabic-speaking children.

Effect of an Arabic Program of Direct Instruction for Phonological Awareness on Phonological Awareness Abilities

“…In a study that compared phonological awareness abilities between typical Arabspeaking children and Arab children with learning disabilities, Barakah et al (2015) found that children with learning disabilities scored significantly poorer than typical children in most phonological awareness skills. Indeed, several researchers (e.g., Ammar & Ridha, 2013) reported that poor readers lack phonemic awareness abilities.…”