Knowledge and Awareness of Elementary School Teachers about Reading Disability (Dyslexia) in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Medina 2018

Introduction: For several years teachers have been concerned about students who appear normal, intelligent, and healthy, but struggle with reading and learning to read and write. These difficulties are identified under the concept of dyslexia [1]. Dyslexia is defined as learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by problems with fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and interpreting skills.

Rationale of Study: Dyslexia appears to be the most common learning disability in mainstream schools since the average number of children with dyslexia universally appears to be between 10-15% of the population [19].

Objectives of the Study: To assess Knowledge and Awareness of al-medina elementary school teachers about reading disability (dyslexia).

Methodology: Cross sectional study.

This study was conducted in al-Medina city. It is located at the north western region of kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Al-Medina city has 208 Elementary female schools and 181 Elementary male schools (published in ministry of education website 1438 The study population included female and male Saudi teachers in primary schools in Al-Medina the total population (Saudi female and male teachers in primary schools) 10,522 expected frequency =50% at 95% confidence level the sample size =371 (calculated by using survey software A self-reported questionnaire was give to primary schools teachers.

Results: A total of 380 teachers of elementary school in Madinah city, Saudi Arabia were included in the study. The personal characteristics of the studied subjects are presented in Table 1. The mean (±SD) age of the studied teachers was 40.6(±6.2) years and age ranged from 25-59 years. About 41.6% were above the age of 40 years and about half of the studied teachers were males (51.3%). The majority were married (92.6%), and had more than 3 children. The majority had bachelor degree (72.6%). Almost all the studied teachers reported to have monthly income of more than 8000 SR (97.1%). More than half of the studied teachers were teaching Arabic and Islamic subjects (56.8%), 22.4% of the teachers were teaching science and Mathematics. Teachers with work experience > 10 years were representing 58.2% of the studied sample with the mean years of experience was 8.4 ± 4.6 (1-19 years).

Conclusions: The present study revealed that good level of knowledge on dyslexia among the studied elementary school teachers in Madinah City to account (42.9%). The results showed also that the majority of teachers to have positive opinion about the need of educational program and special training courses on dyslexia. Although not significant, good level of knowledge on dyslexia was varied by the socio-demographic characteristics of the studied teachers. The higher level was among teachers aged ≤ 40 years, male teachers, married teachers, teachers having 1-3 children, teachers having bachelor degree. The highest percent of good knowledge was found among science and mathematics teachers.