The Investigation of Prevalence Rate and the Diversity of Learning Disabilities among Male Elementary School Students in the West of Mazandaran Province

Abstract

This study is entitled as the investigation of prevalence rate and the diversity of learning disabilities among male elementary school students in the west of Mazandaran. The purpose of this paper is surveying about the prevalence rate and the diversity of disabilities as well as helping officials for better planning. The research method is causative-comparative. The statistical population consists of all male elementary school students living in urban and rural areas in the west of Mazandaran in the 90-91 school years. The studying sample in the first stage concludes 600 students to determine the prevalence rate of learning disabilities. The materials for collecting data consist ofchecklist of learning disabilities according to diagnostic criteria of DSMIV and they are of acceptable validity and reliability. The study has 6 main questions. For exploring and analyzing the obtained data, frequency and the percentage of Z-ratio tests is applied as well as ttest and X2. The findings of the present study show that the prevalence rate in rural area is 8.20% and in urban area it is equal to 7.30%. The prevalence rate of all elementary students is 7.69%, and the highestrate in elementary school is 11.11%, while the least one in the 3grade is 6%.... the prevalence rate of reading disabilities of all students is about .61%, and the whole population has 1.44% of the prevalence rate of writing disabilities, 1.54% of the prevalence rate of math disabilities, and the combination of disabilities of all elementary school students is 4.11%.