Association between factors affecting language development and Chinese dyslexia among primary students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the association between factors affecting language development and Chinese dyslexia, providing scientific evidence for prevention and intervention of dyslexia.@*Methods@#Twelve elementary schools were selected in Baoan, Shenzhen. The parents and head teachers of 12 868 children in grade 3-5 were surveyed by the Questionnaire for Children s Reading Ability, the Dyslexia Checklist for Chinese Children and the Pupil Rating Scale Revised Screening for Learning Disabilities.@*Results@#The prevalence rate of dyslexia was 2.71%, with 349 children suffering from dyslexia. Gender, parental education and occupations, family income, whether parents work away from home before their child was 3 years old, average time mother spends with her child daily and number of languages spoken in family had statistical significance on dyslexia(all P <0.05). After adjusting for parental education and occupations, and family income, the children who spent more than 1 hour with their mothers per day had a significantly reduced risk of dyslexia (1-2 OR =0.46; 3-4 OR =0.45; 5-6 OR =0.40; >7 h OR =0.36, P <0.05); the children living in families where two languages were used for communication had a significantly reduced risk of dyslexia( OR=0.74, 95%CI=0.57-0.96, P =0.02). Children with a history of language development disorders had a significantly increased risk of dyslexia( OR=17.30, 95%CI=7.86-38.09, P <0.01).@*Conclusion@#Increase of time mother spend with their child daily and paying more attention to the children with a history of language development disorders can help to prevent the occurrence of dyslexia.