Phonological Awareness and Working Memory in Arabic-Speaking Egyptian Preschool Children at Risk for Dyslexia

Abstract

This purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between phonological awareness, verbal working memory, and risk for dyslexia in Arabic language in preschool children. The participants of this study were preschool children between the ages of five and six, who represented two groups: (20) children at risk for dyslexia and (20) children normal without any risk for dyslexia. These children were randomly selected from a larger sample of 425 preschool children in Egypt. Phonological awareness and verbal working memory tasks were used to compare children's abilities. The findings indicate that there is a strong relationship between phonological awareness and working memory. In addition, phonological awareness and working memory may have an effect on children's phonological sensitivity and reading skills.

Working Memory Tasks in Relation to Phonological Processes of Arab Dyslexics in the State of Kuwait

“…Results of the current study show that there is no correlation between some phonological processes (Syllables &Sound Deletion Test, Non-Word Repetition Test, and Non-Word Reading Accuracy Test) and the working memory tasks. This also contradicts with the study conducted by Zayed et al, (2013) which indicated the presence of a strong relationship between phonological awareness and working memory that may have an effect on children's phonological sensitivity and reading skills. In addition, the current study results contradict with results reached in a study of Milwidsky (2008) that revealed a close relationship between working memory and phonological awareness.…”

“…Phonological awareness has been found to be related strongly with dyslexia among Arabic-speakers (Al Mannai & Everett, 2005;Ashour, 2011;Othman, 2009;Zayed, 2013). It is also evident that intervention is a successful remediation for the reading disorder (Ashour, 2011).…”

“…It is also evident that intervention is a successful remediation for the reading disorder (Ashour, 2011). In addition, a strong influence was indicated on the ability to read and spell in Arabic speaking dyslexics (Khalil & Dowah, 2007;Zayed, 2011;Zayed, 2013) Milwidsky (2008, p.11) views that phonological awareness and working memory are highly correlated in their relationship with the acquisition of reading skills. She concurs that this may be partly returned to the fact that working memory is a component of the phonological awareness.…”

“…Zayed et al, (2013) conducted a study to examine the relationship between phonological awareness, verbal working memory, and the risk in preschool children. A sample of (40) children was selected randomly from 425 preschool children in Egypt and subsequently was divided into two groups: (20) children at risk for dyslexia and (20) normal children.…”

La conciencia fonológica en contextos educativos y terapéuticos: efectos sobre el aprendizaje de la lectura

“…En el caso terapéutico, el diagnóstico y abordaje a menudo le corresponden al terapeuta del lenguaje. Un ejemplo de ello es demostrado por Zayed et al (2013), en el que el fonoaudiólogo es el encargado de la aplicación de pruebas (previa autorización en todas las instancias). En este caso específico, con una serie de tareas fonológicas (discriminación fonológica, articulación, identificación de rimas, sonido inicial y reconocimiento fonema-grafema), la conclusión determinó que los niños en riesgo de presentar dislexia mostraban dificultades acentuadas en la identificación de rimas; en otros casos, el abordaje terapéutico de la conciencia fonológica ha sido estudiado a la luz de las implicaciones reales del trabajo sobre esta área comparando los efectos de la intervención en niños con trastornos fonológicos y niños con normodesarrollo del habla y del lenguaje que denota una mejoría en este aspecto.…”