Problem of dyslexia among young children of Bangladesh

Abstract

The present study investigated the nature and problem of dyslexia among young children of Bangladesh. Relation between poor academic performances and being at risk of dyslexia and utility of Dyslexia Early Screening Test, Second Edition (DEST-2) were also investigated. DEST-2 by Nicolson, R. I. and Fawcett A. J. (2004) was taken as a measure for screening at risk level of dyslexia. Purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the participants. Total ninety children aged 4 years 5 months to 6 years 5 months were taken as participants for this study. The study was done into two phases. In the first phase, a pilot study was conducted where thirty children, fifteen from English Medium and fifteen from Bangla medium schools of Dhaka City were taken as primary samples. Besides, twelve judges who worked as teachers and psychologists in Dhaka City, were selected to collect opinion regarding the items of all subtests of DEST-2.In the second phase, sixty children from three different English medium schools located at Dhaka (twenty eight children), Rajshahi (fifteen children) and Chittagong (seventeen children) cit ies, were selected based on teachers‘ comments and observat ion according to their poor academic performances. The opinion of twenty teachers from Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong were taken through a subjective questionnaire developed by the researcher regarding the probable nature and problems of dyslexia among young children of Bangladesh. Findings from the pilot study showed that most of the subtests of DEST-2 would be applicable for the Bangladeshi children except few of the subtests where some changes would be required.Findings from the main study showed that more than half of the participants, who had poor academic performances from each of the locations ,were at risk of dyslexia according to the screening diagnosis through DEST-2.Besides, the findings also reveals the nature and problem of dyslexia in terms of difficulties in phonological processing, reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, working memory, receptive language and fluency in performing tasks.