Visual Discrimination and Reading for Children Dyslexic Arabophone, Aged 7.5 - 11.5 Years

Ahlam El Moutez,Mostapha El Alaoui Faris,Maria Benabdejlil

doi:10.4236/psych.2018.98123

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate visual discrimination in an Arabic-speaking environment and then to appreciate the contribution of its disorders in the treatment of the Arabic language written for the Arabic-speaking reader. Method: A visual discrimination measuring instrument was created and adapted based on the test of the letter sequence discrimination of the battery. The structure of the Arabic language has been taken into consideration in the design of the items (vocalization). This test was applied to an individual based on different types of children from different age groups and different types of schools in Rabat, capital of Morocco. The standard methodology for the administration of created tests has been respected. Standard statistical indices were applied to analyze the measurement results and discuss the different possible interactions. Psychometric indices, as reliability, validity and correlation indices, were applied to assess the performance of the created test. Results and conclusion: The test used, was designed, adapted and standardized to the Arabic-speaking population of Moroccan children. The results obtained were summarized in the following points: 1) The standards obtained could be applied by health professionals to assess the performance of visual discrimination in relation to reading. 2) The main factors of segregation of children (gender and type of school) have no influence on visual discrimination. 3) Vocalization slows down reading for normal readers. On the other hand, it stimulates the attention in the dyslexics. 4) The visual discrimination disorder is present in dyslexic children at 69% (two out of three children).

Highlights

The aim of this work is to evaluate visual discrimination in an Arabic-speaking environment and to appreciate the contribution of its disorders in the treatment of the Arabic language written by the Arabic-speaking child reader
The M3 test would serve effectively to examine the relationship between visual discrimination and processing disorder of written Arabic language
The instrument M3 for measuring the quality of the visual discrimination of letter sequences has been validated, according to the satisfactory statistical indices of reliability (Table 6 and Table 7) and validity (Figure 5 and Figure 6). It has been standardized for the population of Moroccan children from 7.5 to 11.5

Summary

Introduction

The aim of this work is to evaluate visual discrimination in an Arabic-speaking environment and to appreciate the contribution of its disorders in the treatment of the Arabic language written by the Arabic-speaking child reader To achieve this goal, we have been forced to develop a visual discrimination measurement instrument adapted to the Arabic-speaking environment. The vision is the main function of perception of images, colors, shapes and words etc This function develops very early in the human. The child uses it from its first weeks of life to explore its environment. He performs saccades, vergences and eye fixations, multiple and in all directions. During reading, the central nervous system exerts motor control of the gaze in three dimensions, horizontally, vertically and in depth, for both eyes simultaneously

Methods

Results

Conclusion