Prevalence of Dyslexia in Primary School in Dhaka: Its Effects on Children’s Academic and Social Life

Like many children all over the world, many children struggle to learn to read in Bangladesh. Dyslexia is one of the major causes of reading disabilities among children. Though there is debate about the construct of dyslexia, its origin and remedy, there is so much evidence to support that dyslexia exist. Unfortunately, this reading disability is widely unknown in our education arena. Data on prevalence of dyslexia are important in developing policies in the field of special education. Present study is a cross-sectional study aimed at determining the prevalence of dyslexia in the primary school students in 4th grade of Mohammad area in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The sample of 133 students (54boys and 57 girls) was taken from 4th grade students of three primary schools with age between 10-12 years. Bangor Dyslexia Test (Miles, 1997), Raven’s Progressive Metrices (Raven, Court & Raven, 1977) and the Academic Record of the students were used to screen out dyslexia. Descriptive and nonparametric statistics were used to determine the prevalence in dyslexia. Out of the total sample, 9.02 % were diagnosed with dyslexia. The prevalence of dyslexia observed in the population studied was relatively higher. Gender differences were non-significant. Students with dyslexia are lagging behind their classmates substantially. Children’s cognitive ability and academic failure poses a dilemma. Teachers and family members were found to display negative attitudes towards dyslexic children manifested in the form of insults, exclusion, psychological pressure, and physical violence. Many misperceptions were also identified based on their knowledge and level of education.