Development of a remediation program for Egyptian dyslexic children

The present study was designed to formulate a remediation program for Arabic speaking children suffering from dyslexia based on improving phonological awareness using materials appropriate for Arabic culture. The study was carried out at the unit of Phoniatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria main university hospital. The subjects were divided into two groups.Group I: 30 dyslexic children of both sexes in the age range of 6[1/2]-10[1/2] years on which the proposed remediation programme was applied. Group II: 30 dyslexic children age and sexmatched were included as a control group; they received no remediation programs during the time of conduction of the study. The formulated Arabic remediation program was based on improving the phonological awareness for dyslexic children, after the Phonological Awareness Training for Reading Program. Modifications and additions were made to suit the nature of the Arabic language, and face the differences between Arabic and English orthography. The program was divided into sound blending, sound segmenting, reading and spelling activities. The training program was applied twice weekly, with session duration lasting from 25 to 30 min. Each session had about 2 or 3 children. The studied groups were subjected to protocol for evaluation of dyslexia before and after therapy to document to evaluate the improvement and the stability in the condition of these children. The presented training program significantly improved reading, writing and phonological awareness of dyslexic cases. The present study highlighted the importance of phonological awareness skills as a prerequisite for emergence of literacy skills. The program was modified to suit Arabic speaking Egyptian children. The study found that the age of the child is the most important predictor factor, the younger the age of intervention the better the outcome of therapy program

Development of an Arabic test for assessment of dyslexia in Egyptian children

The present study was designed to formulate and modify a test to assess dyslexia in Arabic speaking children. The study works to establish its reliability and validity by comparing the performance of normal and dyslexic children, and hence providing a profile of strengths and weaknesses which can be used as a guide for the remedial program of these children. Forty dyslexic children and 120 normal children were subjected to thorough history taking, full clinical examination; including general examination, ear nose and throat examination, conventional neurological evaluation, ophthalmological and audiological evaluation, in addition to psychometric evaluation and language assessment. Formulation of the Arabic Dyslexia Assessment Test [ADAT] was done to suit Egyptian children. The test assessed the following items Rapid naming, Bead threading, One minute reading, Postural stability, Phonemic segmentation, Two minute spelling, backward digit span, Nonsense passage reading, One minute writing, Verbal fluency, and Semantic fluency. It was applied on normal and dyslexic children to test its validity and reliability. Test reliability was proven using test - retest method where the cases and the controls were retested 2 weeks from the original test date. Test validity was measured by Face validity and Construct validity. The results of the Arabic dyslexia assessment test were highly significant in discriminating dyslexics from non dyslexic children. The high validity and reliability of the formulated test proves the sensitivity and specificity of the test