Alice Kyauta Jauni Musa^1,, Adamu Zharakahyel Balami²

The study determined the effects of training in phonological awareness skills on the reading performance of children with dyslexia in primary schools in Maiduguri Metropolis. Two hypotheses, which sought to determine the significant effects of phonological awareness training on reading performance of children with dyslexia and the significant effect of sex on the intervention guided the study. The design of the study is quasi-experiment. A sample of 15 (8 boys and 7 girls) primary two pupils, purposefully selected in a private school, participated in the study. Phonological Awareness Skills Test (PAST), with Cronbach Alpha Coefficient reliability of 0.87, was used to give intervention on four phonological awareness skills - word identification, word deletion, word blending and word rhyming for 8 weeks, while a reading passage (Cloze test) was used to determine the reading levels of the participants before and after the intervention. Simple percentage and t-test were used to analyze the data at 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed that the training in phonological awareness skills significantly improved the reading performance of the children with dyslexia. However, there is no significant effect of sex on the intervention. Universities and colleges of education should give students specializing in English Language training in handling dyslexia to enable them indentify children with dyslexia in their classes and attend to their needs in their teaching in view of the move towards inclusive education.

effect, phonological awareness skills, reading, performance, children with dyslexia