Effect of Two Therapies and Gender on Reading Skills of Pupils with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Reading is a fundamental skill required for effective participation in academic tasks. This research investigated the significant main effects of phonics and neurological impress instructional methods on the reading skills of pupils with learning disabilities. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design with a 3 x 2 factorial matrix was used. Purposive sampling was used to select forty-five students with learning disabilities (N = 45, M = 22, F = 23, Mean age = 9.3) from three government-owned primary schools. Six instruments were used: Pupil Rating Scale (Revised) (r = 0.75); Picture Vocabulary Test (r = 0.75); PALS-PreK (r = 0.82); Informal Reading Inventory (r = 0.70); and Umolu' s One Hundred High Frequency Words (r = 0.85). The data collected were analysed using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and an estimated marginal mean score of 0.05 level is of significance. The findings revealed that treatment had a significant main effect on the reading skills of students with learning disabilities (F (2, 42) = 43.178, p < .05, η 2 =.762), but gender had no significant main effect. It is recommended that phonics and neurological impress instructional methods be adopted when teaching reading skills to pupils with learning disabilities.