Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of water-based games in improving the reading skills of eight-year-old boys with dyslexia.
Method: A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test measures and a control group was used. From a population of 150 second-grade boys referred to specialized learning disability centers in Hamadan in 2022, 30 students diagnosed with dyslexia were selected via convenience sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (n=15 each). The experimental group received 15 sessions of structured water-based games (three times per week), while the control group received no intervention. Data were collected using the Dyslexia Syndrome Checklist (Teacher Form; validity and reliability reported by Pakdaman Savoji, 2009), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised (WISC-R; Wechsler, 1974), and the NEMA Dyslexia Scale (Karami-Nouri & Moradi, 2008). Statistical analysis was performed using MANCOVA.
Results: The results demonstrated that the experimental group achieved significantly higher overall reading performance than the control group (F = 45.09, p < 0.01; η² = 0.62). Significant improvements were also observed in reading-related skills, including word reading, rhyme, picture naming, text comprehension, and word understanding (p < 0.01). However, no significant progress was found in word strings, phoneme deletion, pseudoword reading, letter symbols, or category symbols (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest that structured water-based games can effectively enhance reading performance in children with dyslexia, particularly in comprehension and vocabulary-related skills. However, limited improvements in phonological processing indicate that such interventions are most beneficial when combined with explicit phonological instruction.