The Effectiveness of Phonological Awareness Training in Children with Dyslexia

The Effectiveness of Phonological Awareness Training in Children with Dyslexia
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
The Effectiveness of Phonological Awareness Training in Children with Dyslexia
           Reading is an essential skill in modern-day learning since it enables any learner to earn written knowledge. Impaired reading compromises the art of learning and minimizes the chances of excelling in education (Jain, Priya & Joshi, 2020). Attainment of literacy and numeracy skills is an essential function of education as offered by primary schools around the globe. Empowering learners to read enables them to apply their literacy and numeracy skills overcoming educational related challenges. According to Eissa (2013), the definitive objective of reading is to develop an understanding of written materials, scrutinizes them and uses them for study needs. While most learners find studying thrilling, others develop low interest and anxiety because they have reading difficulties. Initiation of phonological awareness programs can be effective in guiding children with Dyslexia in overcoming their learning challenges (Pape-Neumann et al., 2015). The current study is a literature analysis whose primary objective is to examine the effectiveness of phonological awareness and training in children with Dyslexia. It defines Dyslexia and explores how phonological awareness programs can assist in in identifying the learning potentials in children. The study also explores the effectiveness of phonological awareness as a vehicle utilized in achieving positive reading and comprehension outcomes in children with dyslexia. The ultimate study objective is to explore the inconsistencies existing explored research works and winds by underlining the implication of this knowledge on intervention and classroom strategies. 
The Definition of Dyslexia and Phonological Awareness
           Various scholars have defined Dyslexia and phonological awareness, with many attesting that it as the most ideal in facilitating children with skills on how to overcome reading difficulties. According to Musa and Balami (2016), Dyslexia is a condition that impairs the learners' ability to read, spell, and learn, despite their intellectual skills and abilities being intact. Psychologists regard this condition as a neurological disorder that compromises the efficiency of learners. However, this situation is not associated with any form of impairment since they are believed to have adequate sensory ability. Therefore, their intellectual skills are not tampered with in any way. The condition of this nature is threatening since it kills the motivation of children to pursue learning by developing a withdrawal perception. According to the International Dyslexia Association, learners are believed to be affected with dyslexia when they display inconsistent and incompetent in reading habits, which manifest even when the learning environment is equipped with adequate learning opportunities appropriate (Patscheke, Degé & Schwarzer, 2019). While normal functioning is not interfered with by Dyslexia, the skills associated with fluent and precise word reading are affected most. Learners with Dyslexia develop a challenge in identifying and spelling out words effectively. They lack accuracy and usually confuse letters that appear similar. The condition is, therefore significant constraint on the learning of any child diagnosed with it. Pape-Neumann et al. (2015) define phonological awareness as the capacity to work overtly with sound elements more petite than the syllables, which seems difficult for learners with Dyslexia. The learning method entails recognizing, discriminating, and manipulating sounds in spoken language, focusing on syllables, rhymes, and phonemes. Children with Dyslexia usually comprise impaired phonological awareness because they struggle to identify and articulate the letter sounds and their correspondences. The phonological recording of letter-sound develops eventually, thus hampering their reading, spelling, and writing. 
Application of Phonological Awareness in Identifying the Reading Disabilities in Children
           Research reveals that phonological awareness can predict children's Dyslexia. Saad (2017) conducted a study to investigate the effectiveness of phonological awareness intervention programs in identifying the reading abilities in children. The study entailed thorough scrutiny of electrical databases, which included ERIC, PubMed, and SCOPUS, among others, were investigated, with "phonological awareness" as a critical term. The study outcome verified that using the phonological awareness intervention programs can be ideal in identifying children with reading impairment. Similar studies further demonstrated that using the same skill would enable the instructors to rectify the learning approach and allow the children with this condition to improve and even perform exceptionally in their studies. With the study outcome, it is apparent that phonological awareness programs are significant in identifying children who have Dyslexia.   
How Training in Phonological Awareness Can Enhance the Reading Skills of Children with Dyslexia
           Various studies divulge the significance of phonological awareness in training children with reading difficulties. Eissa (2013) examined the use of phonological awareness training intervention to enhance children's pre-reading skills while targeting those with mental retardation. The study thrived on the knowledge from previous studies, which reported that phonological awareness could manipulate individual speech sounds that link or make up the connected speech. The current study intended to bridge the study gap after discovering that minimal research had been conducted on children with special needs or special needs populations. The methodology utilized included the ANCOVA analysis followed by the repeated measures conducted on 47 children with mental impairment featuring as the study sample. Gender aspect was included in the research, with 24 (n=24, 19boys, and five girls) featuring for experimentation. The control study entailed 23 (n=23, 20boys and three girls) participants. The study outcomes revealed that the targeted population improved in reading and writing skills upon the intervention of the phonological appearance programs. The development justified using these programs to enhance the reading, learning, and spelling skills in children with Dyslexia. 
           A similar study by Habibi-Kaleybar et al. (2017) justified the utilization of phonological awareness in identifying and enhancing children's learning patterns with Dyslexia. The study objective was to compare mental rotation and phonological awareness on precision, promptness and comprehension in children with reading difficulties. The study aimed to understand that learning impairments in children account for an ineffective performance in children across the globe. The study design entailed utilizing quasi-experimental methodology, which was applied in pre-test and post-test studies, with the inclusion of control, whose objective was to generate the difference in study impact. The target population for sampling includes 45 students with Dyslexia. The random selection applied to obtain the participants in the experiment. The participants were divided into two groups and were administered with phenomenological awareness and mental rotation training. The control groups comprised 15 (n=15) participants. Two tools applied in collecting data, namely, the revised Wechsler Intelligence scale alongside the dyslexia children. The experimenters analyzed the collected information with the aid of the Multivariate Covariance (MANCOVA). The results reveal that utilization of mental rotation and phenomenological awareness schemes significantly improved impaired students' performance. The outcome further emphasized that utilization of the two programs facilitated improved reading, accuracy, and speed and understanding in the participants. The study justifies the use of enhancement programs such as phonological awareness and mental rotation can play a massive role in enhancing children's reading skills with Dyslexia. 
           Studies investigating the impact of enhancing the phonological awareness programs to facilitate the enhancement of learning among children with Dyslexia have been conducted by various scholars. Layes et al. (2020) examined how combining the two elements, namely the phonological and print intervention programs, improve the outcome of phonological awareness outcome. The experimenters generated the combination to determine whether other aspects such as the reading accuracy and comprehension in students can improve. The target population entailed the children pursuing their studies as third graders, and all were speaking the Arabic language. The participants selected were affected with Dyslexia, thus would have difficulties in reading and spelling words. The experimental group comprised 22 (n=22) and together recorded a mean age of 122.9 months. The c...