Prevalence of reading and writing disabilities among primary school students

Subject Areas : روان درمانگری

Ali Hosseinaee ¹ , Ahmad Aghajani ² , Azam Nofresti ³

1 - Jahad Daneshgahi Tarbiat Moalem Branch
2 - MA in Psychology
3 - Jahad Daneshgahi Tarbiat Moalem Branch

Received: 2015-06-03 Accepted : 2015-06-03 Published : 2011-06-22

Keywords: learning disability, reading disability, writing disability, Primary School Students,

Abstract :

In order to determine the prevalence of reading and writing disabilities among primary school students , 3282 students in third-, fourth-, and fifth- grade were selected from seven educational districts of Qom State by stratified sampling. First, teachers completed the Learning Disabilities Symptoms Checklist (Fawcett, & Lowe, 1995). Then those who met more than three symptoms, completed a researcher-devised Reading and Writing Test. The students who obtained scores lower than the criterion score administered the Raven Progressive Matrics (Raven, 1956). Finally, 3120 students without mental, visual, auditory, and motor deficiencies consisted the research sample. The findings indicated that (1) the prevalence of reading and writing disabilities were 1.55% and 1.34% respectively, (2) no significant difference was found between the males and the females, (3) the prevalence of reading disability was significantly different among third-, fourth-, and fifth- grade, and (4) the prevalence of reading and writing disabilities were significantly different among seven districts of Qom. Given the research findings, there are considerable number of students with reading and writing disabilities, which suggest that preventive and remedial actions are needed.