Effectiveness of the Linguistic Plays on Improving the Reading Skills of Educable Mental Retarded Preliminary School Students

Abstract The present study has been conducted with the purpose of exploring linguistic plays in increasing reading skill among retarded students. The kind of the study is quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test, being conducted among all retarded students studying in second grade of elementary schools at Mashhad. The sample included 30 subjects, randomly selected and assigned as experimental and control. Then the experimental group received 20 sessions of linguistic plays. In data collection we used two standard tests, namely Raven children test for homogenous subjects, and phonemic knowledge test, and also two researcher-made tests of reading speed and comprehension with appropriate validity and reliability. In data analysis, in descriptive level, we used indicators of central tendency, dispersion index, frequency distribution table, diagram and etc. and in inferential level, in addition to examining the normality of data and investigating test hypotheses we used covariance analysis and t-test. The findings show that: 1. Phonemic skill score of retarded students receiving intervention (linguistic plays), has been higher compared to control group (p<0.001) 2. No difference has been found regarding reading speed score among both groups. (p<0.102). 3. Reading comprehension score of experimental group has been higher than control group (p<0.001). Therefore, the results indicate that this educational method has been appropriate and can increase retarded students' reading skill. Keywords: educable mentally retarded student, linguistic plays, phonological skill, reading skill, reading speed, comprehension