Developing a game-based mobile application to enhance reading skills for dyslexic students at primary schools in Saudi Arabia

Fluent reading is necessary for any future learning, regardless of discipline. However, dyslexia is a universal reading impairment in which each individual with dyslexia has a set of fundamental reading difficulties that make this fluency challenging to achieve. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) interventions have become more prevalent in the last couple of decades in addressing dyslexia, where they have been presented to students to help overcome their difficulties. Thus, this thesis presents a novel game-based mobile application that has been designed and developed to increase reading skills for dyslexic students at primary schools in Saudi Arabia. This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed application by conducting two studies in primary schools in Saudi Arabia. From the studies’ findings, it can be seen that the proposed game-based mobile application aids in improving reading skills for dyslexic students. Additionally, the studies showed very positive behaviours towards the proposed mobile application, leading to a high level of satisfaction. Thus, it is considered a supportive tool to enhance students with dyslexia to overcome their reading difficulties and effectively promote the learning process. This work has provided key contributions, including the creation of the novel educational application for dyslexic students learning Arabic and a distinct evaluation approach and methodology.