Effectiveness of Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies on Reading Skills of Dyslexic Children

Reading fluency as one of the five major components of skilled reading is considered as an indicator of reading competes. The latest reading program that combines most effective strategies is the Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS). The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of HELPS on reading skills (reading comprehension, reading speed and accuracy) of dyslexic children. The population in this study includes all dyslexic students of Tabriz. 8 dyslexic male third and fourth grade elementary students were selected as sample group. In a single case study, Subjects in the pre-treatment phase, and after reading each text and also after the treatment, reading speed, reading accuracy and comprehension were tested. Results were analyzed with comparing diagrams. Findings show that in post-test 3 students showed 5 scores, one of them showed 3 scores increased, and 4 others had high stable scores compared to base line. For accuracy, despite increased hardiness, all of students showed 6 to 29 scores increase in post-test compared to baseline. Minimum increasing in reading speed were 1.2 minutes and maximum were 2.17 minutes. The results from this study indicate that HELPS program improves reading performance of dyslexic children, including reading speed, reading accuracy and comprehension.