Correlations of Symptoms of Dyslexia with Academic Achievement and Behavioral Problems in a Malaysian Primary School

Vol. 2 No. 4

Year: 2009

Issue: February-April

Title: Correlations of Symptoms of Dyslexia with Academic Achievement and Behavioral Problems in a Malaysian Primary School 

Author Name: Sheila Christine Devaraj, Samsilah Roslan, Sidek Mohd Noah, Rahil Mahyuddin 

Synopsis: 

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there was any significant correlation between symptoms of dyslexia in Malaysian students and discipline problems.  A total of 197 Standard 3 and 4 students from a national primary school were involved in the study.  Findings show that there was a significant negative correlation between academic achievement and symptoms of dyslexia for both the Standard 3 (r = -.60, p<.01) and the Standard 4 (r = -.67, p<.01) students.  The correlation also showed that the relationship between discipline problems and symptoms of dyslexia was higher for the older students.  The Standard 3 students had r = .39, which is a definite but small relationship, while the Standard 4 students had r = .49, which is a substantial relationship.  This might indicate a trend where the contribution of symptoms of dyslexia to discipline problems increases as the student progresses through the school system. In the analysis of variance, it was found that there was no significant difference in discipline problems and the occurrence of students with symptoms of dyslexia among the Malays, Chinese and Indians.  However there was a difference in terms of the socio-economic status. A comparison was also made between the boys and girls and the findings showed that there was no significant difference in the total dyslexic score between the two sexes.