The effect of sound therapy on reading skills of students with reading difficulties

Abstract

The lack of success in acquiring reading skills in early school years can deeply prevent students from achievement in most other educational subjects. Research shows that most of children with reading and learning complications suffer from problems in auditory processing. It may therefore be suitable for those who have reading difficulties be treated with sound therapy. This study aimed to assess the effect of sound therapy on reading skills of students with reading difficulties. This study was a quasi-experimental design with pre-posttest and control group. The sample group was 20 students who were studying in elementary school (third grade). They were selected by available sampling method and assigned randomly to two experimental and control groups. Data were collected by Reading & Dyslexia Test (Karami nori & Moradi 1378). After pre-test the experimental group for 20 sessions was trained by sound therapy while the control group received no intervention. Then, all the subjects were tested by post-test. The statistical models were the Analyze of Covariance (ANCOVA). In the post-test, mean of reading skills in experimental group decreased significantly. This difference also was significant for all subscales of reading skills except Rhyme and Reading non-words (p=0.07, 0.96). The findings show that sound therapy has significant effect on reading skills and in students with reading difficulties.