Comparison of working memory and sensory profile in boys and girls with writing disability

Alireza Sangani,Paria Jangi

doi:10.34172/jsums.2019.29

Abstract

Background and aims: The main problems of children with learning disabilities are in cognition and their sensations. This study aimed to investigate the comparison of working memory and sensory profile in boys and girls with writing disability. Methods: The methodology of this descriptive study was the comparative type. The statistical population of this study was all girls and boys by the age of 8-10 suffering from the writing disability in Gorgan City during treatment in a writing disability center in summer of 2018. According to the research method, the stratified random sampling method was used and 50 boys and 58 girls were selected from each group. According to research tools, the Dunn profile (1999) was obtained from the parents of the children. In the area of Daneman, & Carpenter working memory (1980), questions were asked from the children directly, and the information related to processing and storage in their memory were received. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance analysis using SPSS24 software. Results: Descriptive findings showed that mean and standard deviation in boys and girls were respectively in Processing (50.32±6.93, 54.22±7.45), Storage (48.47±6.08, 53.17±6.07), Indoctrination associated with the physical state of the body motion (34.28±7.09, 36.91±6.48), Multisensory processing (34.68±5.21, 37.94±6.57), Auditory Processing (31.74±5.84, 35.52±6.59). Also the results indicate that there is a significant difference in the writing disability among processing (P<0.006) and storage (P<0.000) of working memory subscales and the Indoctrination associated with the physical state of the body motion (P<0.000), Multisensory processing (P<0.000) and Auditory Processing (P<0.002), of the sensory profile variable in both the girls and boys with writing disability. Conclusion: with regard to the results obtained, it can be concluded that the boys group is in worse conditions in working memory and sensory processing styles, which requires a special attention and more focused educational approaches.

Highlights

A learning disorder is defined as a neurobiological problem in cognitive processing like memory and language, which is created due to the abnormal function of the brain and can disturb the educational function [1]
Some previous studies showed that sensory processing style is an important factor, and disorders such as hyperactivity, obsession, and sleeping disorders are related to high sensory processing, while illnesses like anxiety, depression, and stress are related to low sensory processing [8,9]
Due to the insignificance of the covariance homogeneity of Levene’s test and the Box’s test (0.521) related to the equality of the covariance matrices (Table 2), we could say that the data are consistent and the assumptions of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) are observed as well

Summary

Introduction

A learning disorder is defined as a neurobiological problem in cognitive processing like memory and language, which is created due to the abnormal function of the brain and can disturb the educational function [1]. This study aimed to compare working memory and sensory profile in boys and girls with writing disability. Results: Based on descriptive findings (i.e., mean and standard deviation), the following data were obtained regarding the intended parameters in boys and girls as processing (50.32±6.93, 54.22±7.45), storage (48.47±6.08, 53.17±6.07), indoctrination associated with the physical state of body motion (34.28±7.09, 36.91±6.48), multisensory processing (34.68±5.21, 37.94±6.57), and auditory processing (31.74±5.84, 35.52±6.59), respectively. The results indicated a significant difference in the writing disability among the processing (P < 0.006) and storage (P < 0.000) of working memory subscales and indoctrination associated with the physical state of the body motion (P < 0.000), multisensory processing (P < 0.000), and auditory processing (P < 0.002) of the sensory profile in both girls and boys with writing disabilities.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion