The conception of primary education teachers about developmental dyslexia

Abstract:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder of constitutional origin, characterized by difficulties in decoding isolated simple words, caused by a deficiency in the processing of phonological information. Teachers are often the first to observe the difficulties of dyslexic children in early stages of literacy, however; their lack of the necessary knowledge of the disorder derails the proper conduction of the situation, in making the coping with learning difficulties easier. The objective of this study was to characterize the level of information about dyslexia. For this purpose, 27 Portuguese teachers from the 5th to the 8th grade of elementary school, 17 belonging to the state system and 10 to the private sector, took part in the research. The results showed lack of knowledge about the causing etiological aspects of dyslexia: 29.6% of the research participants disregard the genetic, hereditary and neurological aspects as a cause of the disorder and 33.3% disregarded these same aspects as a predisposing factor. The study concluded that the level of information of the participant teachers was insufficient to identify signs of risk of the dyslexic disorder.

Keywords: dyslexia; learning; teachers.