The Probable Prevalence and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Specific Learning Disorder in Primary School Children...

The aim of this study was to research the probable prevalence of Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) in primary school children in Edirne City and the relationships with their sociodemographic characteristics.

The sample of our study was composed of 2,174 children who were educated in primary schools in second, third, and fourth grades in the academic year 2013-2014 in Edirne City. The teachers and parents of these children were given Specific Learning Difficulties Symptom Scale, Learning Disabilities Symptoms Checklist (teacher and parent forms), and sociodemographic data forms to fill in. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess the risk factors for SLD.

Our study revealed that the probable prevalence of SLD was 13.6%; 17% for boys and 10.4% for girls. Reading impairment was 3.6%, writing impairment was 6.9%, and mathematic impairment was 6.5%. We determined that consanguineous marriages, low income, history of neonatal jaundice were found as risks for SLD; born by caesarean, developmental delay of walking, and history of neonatal jaundice were found as risks for mathematic impairment. A history of learning difficulties of parents was a risk factor for forming SLD and subtypes.

Our findings were consistent with other study results about the prevalence of SLD. The relationships between the probable prevalence rates and sociodemographic data were discussed.