Study of Specific Learning Disorder in Children with Poor Academic Performers

Objectives: To study the nature and prevalence of specific learning disorder in children with poor academic performance. Material and Methods: Total of 1483 children studying in 3 CBSE schools, aged between 6 and 12 years were screened. 312 children were found to be performing poor in academics. After simple randomization and further screening procedure 115 children were included in the study. Each child was assessed by interviewing with NIMHANS INDEX OF SpLD. Statistical analysis was done using Epi Info 7 software. Results: The prevalence of poor academic performers was found to be 21.08%. The prevalence of specific learning disorder among children with poor academic performance was found to be 10.43%. Majority of poor academic performers have Specific reading disorder accounts to be 4.35% and Specific disorder arithmetical skills accounts to be 2.61%, Specific spelling disorder accounts to be 2.61%. And mixed disorders of scholastic skills accounts to be 1.74%.Conclusion: Specific learning disorder in school going children leads to poor performance in academics and school drop outs. Finding out the children with SpLD and early intervention helps to prevent school dropouts.

Role of Play Therapy on Aggression and Learning Disabilities in Students: A Quasi-Experimental Design

Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of play therapy on children aggressive and spelling disorders. Method: Quasi-experimental design is a type of pre-exam and posttest with control group. The Samples of this research consisted of 24 male and female students who were selected according to the entering criteria of this study and based on the available sampling method in the second district of Tehran. In this study was used an aggressiveness Shahim questionnaire and self-made dictation test to collect the data. Results: Data analysis indicated that play therapy was reduced the aggression of children in post test of experimental group and could improve their spelling disorder. Overall, results showed the importance and effectiveness of play therapy on aggression and spelling disorder. Conclusion: The results indicated that the uses of play therapy as an effective method and without adverse effects are useful in clinical centers of reducing aggression and improving spelling disorder.

Measuring Dysgraphia: A Graded-Difficulty Spelling Test

In this paper we describe the construction of a graded-difficulty spelling test for adults consisting of two alternative forms each containing 30 words (GDST, Forms A and B). The spelling test, together with background tests of verbal and non-verbal skills, was administered to 100 control patients with orthopaedic injuries. The two forms of the spelling test were highly correlated (0.92). Spelling was highly correlated with reading (0.75, 0.77) and moderately correlated with vocabulary (0.57) and naming (0.39, 0.40). There was no correlation between spelling skills and non-verbal reasoning. The test was validated in a group of 26 patients with left hemisphere and 20 patients with right hemisphere lesions. Spelling was shown to be lateralized to the left hemisphere and there appeared to be a shift in scores of the left hemisphere group towards the lower quartile, with 65% of the left hemisphere group falling within this band. The most severe spelling impairments were invariably associated with other language disorders but a number of dissociations were documented at spelling levels falling between the 5th and 25th percentile band. Two patients with left hemisphere lesions (8%) were identified as having selective dysgraphias. The lack of overlap between the anatomical sites of the two patients with specific lexical dysgraphia argues against a single site for this type of dysgraphia and argues for further refinement of this classification of spelling disorder.