Attached
Introduction: Reading and spelling disability in
children is neurodevelopmental in nature and is
associated with a range of cognitive deficits. The
condition is of clinical importance due to its
comorbidity with other developmental disorders and
disruptive and antisocial behaviour disorders.
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of reading and
spelling difficulty in Sinhala language in 10 year old
children attending main-stream education and its
relationship between socio-economic and family
factors.
Method: In this community based cross sectional
study, the sample was randomly selected from
children attending Grade 5 in all main stream schools
in a geographically defined area. The working
definition of reading and spelling difficulty was
adopted from standards set by the National Institute
of Education for Sri Lankan in children 10 years old
and attending Grade 5. Assessment was objectively
structured into 5 different tasks, which were
independently scored by 2 assessors. Data were
obtained on developmental adversities, physical
health and socio-economic status of family.
Results: The total sample was 275 with 56.3% males.
Of the 5 domains (reading, comprehension, spelling,
sentence writing, expressive written language)
assessed, spelling difficulty was the most prevalent (22.5%). Correlation between the performance in the
5 domains was significant (p<0.01). Odds Ratio for
reading and spelling was 2.3 (95% Cl 2.107 to 2.593)
for low education level of mother. Similar figure for
low income of family was 2.3 (95% Cl 2.161 to
2.439).
Conclusions: The study found a high prevalence of
reading and spelling disability in Sinhala language in
10 year old children attending main-stream
education. The risk of such disability is significantly
higher in the presence of low educational level of
mother and low family income
