Phonological awareness as an educational intervention approach: Effects on reading skills with mentally retarded children

Abstract

This study aims to assess the effects of phonological awareness skills training given to children who have mild mental retardation on their reading skills. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 12 children, who are between 9 and 12 years old, have mild mental retardation, receive special education service and attend a mainstreaming classroom in a private institution, and have gained the initial literacy skills but have troubles in reading. The results gained through the study, which is formed by pre-test, intervention and post-test stages, indicate that the training given within the scope of the study was influential on the acquisition of receptive language skills, basic phonological awareness skills, the total reading duration of the whole text, the number of mistakes made while reading, reading mistakes based on the insufficiency of phonological awareness skills, substitution of words that are phonologically similar with each other and reading mistakes correction skills of the children who have mild mental retardation.