The comparison of central coherence between children with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and normal children

Nowadays, many efforts are done to evaluate the cognitive status of children with learning disabilities. This study aimed to assess central coherence in children with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia and normal children. The curren study is fundamental in terms of its objective and causal-comparative in terms of data collection. The population included all students with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia and normal children aging between 8 to 12 years old who was studying in Tehran in 2011-2012 academic year and learning disabilities centers in Tehran, processing, evaluation, diagnosis or treatment. Also all normal students aged between 8 to 12 years who were studing in Tehran in that year. The population was divided into four equal groups namely: dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and normal children, each including 70 patients (total 280 patients). BlockDesign Task King and Frys (1993) was used to evaluate the tasks. The data were statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. The results showed that the group of dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia and normal children are significantly different in mean scores of central coherence andin the mean time but among children with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia differences in mean scores and the mean time were not observed. Based on the findings of this study we can conclude that one of the causes of the differences between normal children and children with learning disabilities is the defect in their central coherence.