The Effect of Dyslexia Prevalence and Academic Achievement of Pupils in Primary Schools in Sapele LGA of Delta State

Abstract

This study examined the effect of dyslexia prevalence on the academic achievement of pupils in primary schools in Sapele. The formulation of three objectives, research questions, and hypotheses served as the study's guiding principles. Descriptive and ex-post-facto research designs were used for the study. The study's population was 11,584 pupils from 42 public primary schools in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State. The sample size of 375 pupils, comprising both 176 dyslexic and 199 non-dyslexic pupils, was selected using stratified random sampling techniques. The study adopted the Screener for Reading and Writing (SRW) to identify individuals with dyslexia based on their reading and writing abilities. Mean and standard deviation were used, while the hypotheses were tested using t-tests at the 0.05 level of significance. The study's results indicated, among other things, that 47.73% of the pupils who participated in the study were dyslexic; pupils with dyslexia had more difficulty with reading (M = 23.19, SD = 5.54) than writing (M = 22.90, SD = 5.62); and non-dyslexic pupils had better academic achievement (M = 69.33, SD = 18.32) than dyslexic pupils (M = 38.94, SD = 3.92), with a mean difference in favour of non-dyslexic pupils. The study concluded that there is a need for early identification and intervention strategies to support dyslexic pupils in improving their reading and language processing skills. The study recommended, among others, that there should be increased awareness and understanding of dyslexia among teachers and school administrators to reduce the prevalence of dyslexia in primary schools in Sapele, Nigeria.