Effectiveness of Working Memory Educational Program on Phonological Working Memory and Phonemic Awareness in Dyslexic Students: A Neuropsychological Study

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of working memory educational program on enhancing Phonological working memory and phonemic awareness performance of dyslexic students. This study was Quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test. The statistical population was all the primary school students of 2 and 3 greads, with dyslexia who went to learning disorders centers in Tehran, 30 of them using convenience sampling and were assigned by random in experimental and control groups. The assessment tools included Working Memory Test Battery for Children (Gathercole & Pickering, 2001) and Phonological Awareness Test (Soleimani & Dastjerdi-Kazemi,  2010). The experimental group experienced the working memory educational program in 16 sessions, 30 to 35minutes. The obtained data were analyzed statistically by using of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results showed significant differences between experimental and control group in both dependent variables at post-test. The results showed that training of working memory educational program improved Phonological working memory and phonemic awareness performance of dyslexic students.