A Program to Develop Phonological Awareness to improve Reading Skills for Children with Mental Disabilities

The current study aims to improve the reading skills of children with mild mental disabilities through a program to develop phonological awareness skills using a variety of different activities, strategies, techniques, and methods. The study sample consists of 20 children with mild mental disabilities, who have deficiencies in phonological awareness and reading skills. They were divided into 10 children for the experimental group (6 males and 4 females), and 10 children for the control group (6 males and 4 females). The study used the phonological awareness measure (prepared by Hanan Naji), the reading skills test (prepared by Hanan Naji), and the level measure. Socioeconomic of the family. (Prepared by Abdulaziz Al-Khass, 2013), Raven's Progressive Matrices Test developed by J.C. Raven. (Taqneen Amina Kazem et al., 2005), training program (prepared by Hanan Naji). The results of the study resulted in the fulfillment of all its hypotheses, which resulted in an increase in the level of phonological awareness skills and the development of reading skills among children with mental disabilities.