Study on Morphological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming Through Word Reading and Comprehension in Normal and Disabled Reading Arabic-Speaking Children

This study explored the role and extent of the involvement of morphological awareness (MA) in contrast to rapid automatized naming (RAN) in word reading and comprehension of Arabic as a morphologically based orthography. We gave measures of word reading, reading comprehension, MA, and RAN in addition to a nonverbal mental ability test to 3 groups of readers: a group with dyslexia (n=20) from the 6th grade compared to a group of normal readers matched in age (n=20) and a younger reader group from the 4th grade (n=18). Results indicated that RAN was a significant predictor of word reading and reading comprehension, whereas MA explained only the variance in reading comprehension. We conclude that RAN and MA have important roles in predicting reading skills, and we suggest that they should be included more frequently in assessments and instruction.