When Dyslexia Meets Diglossia: Assessment Using the Spoken Arabic Language in Kindergarten
Abstract
Salim Abu Rabia and Asma Hawa
Research suggests that early identification of developmental dyslexia is important for mitigating the negative effects of dyslexia [1-3]. Children begin to acquire their native language from the first day they are born (and even before). Its assumed that preschooler who has proficient language skills such as vocabulary and syntactical structures in speech, oral expression, auditory processing (recalling a series of nouns in the order they were heard), linear instruction processing (recalling sentences with increasing amounts of information), sentence repetition, vocabulary knowledge, and semantic categories is likely not to encounter difficulties with reading in first grade. These findings may help encourage instruction methods to promote reading among children as early as kindergarten, as well as contribute to the development of diagnostic tools to help kindergarten teachers identify struggling students. This, consequently, would aid in the selection and implementation of early intervention programs to help students cope with difficulties in school.