Assessment on Prevalence and Risk Factors of Dyslexia among Primary School Students

Abstract

Background: Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that affects reading skills and language processing. Children with dyslexia have difficulty in reading, writing, spelling, grammar or in speaking. Due to these difficulty, the child may be slow in academics, social skills, difficult in manage their daily activities, emotional problems etc. which may lead to long-term educational problems. Aim: To assess the prevalence and explore the risk factors of dyslexia among the primary school students in selected schools. To assess the prevalence of dyslexia among primary school students. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of dyslexia among primary school students. To find out association between the prevalence of dyslexia and selected socio-demographic variables of primary school students. Methodology: A non-experimental study with explorative survey descriptive research design was used. The study was conducted in R.L. Jalappa central school, Tamaka, Kolar. Non-probability convenient sampling technique was adopted in order to select the samples of 100 primary school students who fulfill the selection criteria. The data was collected from the primary school students along with the help of their teachers by using screening checklist for dyslexia which consists of 30 items adopted from British Dyslexia Association (BDA) and a checklist on identifying the risk factors of dyslexia on primary school students which has 10 items through interview method on one to one basis until the desired sample is reached. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used for analyzing the data. Results: Regarding age in years, 56% of the students were 08 years old, 43% were female students & 57% were male students; class of studying 50% were from 1st standard, another 50% of them were from 2nd standard;44% of the students' academic performance were good with50 % of them were found to be average. The prevalence regarding dyslexia among primary school students on screening were identified as 06% of them with dyslexia and remaining 94% of the students are without dyslexia. In regard to the risk factors concerning to dyslexia in these primary school students; 06 % of them had pre-school language impairment, 04% had some vision/sight problems, 15% of the students were found impulsive in nature: 04% of them had motor coordination difficulty with some developmental problems and almost all the students 100% had normal level of intelligence. Conclusion: The present findings of the study states that the primary school students may be at risk for not attaining full literacy skills due to various risk factors. Early screening with all children in school and intense intervention services should focus on the students who demonstrate the warning signs of dyslexia and related problems in the best way to prevent from becoming more severe in overtime and for better outcomes.