The Effectiveness of Programs to Strengthen Working Memory and Visual Perception on Improving Reading Students with Reading Disorder

Reading is one of the fundamental skills which help people to gain and understand new information and concepts. Current study aimed to investigate the efficacy of working memory and visual perception improvement training on the improvement of reading performance in students with dyslexia. Present research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and control group design. Study sample consisted of 30 second and third grade elementary school boys with dyslexia that were studying at the learning disability centers in Kermanshah in 2012-2013 academic year. The participants were matched according to their characteristics. Then the students were randomly assigned to experimental (n= 15) or control (n= 15) groups. The experimental group received 10 one-hour sessions of working memory and visual perception improvement training. Data were collected using Reading and Dyslexia Test (Karami Noori & Moradi) and were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance. Results showed that working memory and visual perception improvement program had significant impact on the improvement of reading performance and its components including word reading, word string, rhyme test, image naming, word understanding, sound omission, and letters and signs test while the effect of the program was not significant on understanding the text, read nonwords and pseudo-words, and signs test categories. It is suggested that working memory and visual perception improvement program be used as a complementary treatment for individuals with dyslexia.