Performance profile of reading and metalinguistic skills in students with dyslexia, learning difficulties and learning disorders

Abstract

Introduction: The reading process involves several cognitive skills, such as metalinguistic skills and memory. These processes lead the student to understand the ideas of a text for the creation of mental models, based on the context and your point of view. Objective: To analyze the performance of metalinguistic and reading skills in students with dyslexia, learning difficulties, and learning disorders. Methods: This is an observational and cross-sectional study. The group comprised 80 students from the 3rd to the 5th year of elementary, both gender, aged between eight and ten years and 11 months. The sample, distributed in four groups as follows: Group I composed of 20 students with an interdisciplinary diagnosis of dyslexia, Group II make up of 20 students with a multidisciplinary diagnosis of learning disorders, Group III by 20 students with learning difficulties and Group IV comprised 20 students with excellent academic performance. Every student, individually, underwent the application of the Metalinguistic and Reading Skills Tests Protocol. Results: The Groups I and II had more errors than Group III and IV. Group III showed a higher number of mistakes than Group IV. Scores were obtained from the metalinguistic tests, word reading and pseudowords, and repetition of no -monosyllable and polysyllable words. Conclusion: Students with dyslexia and learning disorders had a higher number of mistakes in syllabic and phonemic tests, reading words, and pseudowords than students with learning difficulties and excellent academic performance.