EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCES AND DISCRIMINATION EXPERIENCED BY DYSLEXIC CHILDREN

Dyslexic children often had to face many psychological problems due to their inability to deal with language issues. The present research investigation aims at understanding the emotional disturbances and sense of discrimination faced by dyslexic children. For this purpose, 80 male and female children (40 Dyslexic and 40 Non-dyslexic) of age 6-12 years were examined. The children were identified fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria and assessed individually on the working memory and attention tests (NIMHANS Battery 2004). Discrimination and Stigma Scale (Thornicroft et al., 2008) and Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbances (Epstein & Culliman, 2010) were applied to assess the sense of discrimination and emotional disturbances experienced by the participants. The results indicate an existence of a significantly greater degree of emotional disturbances and feeling of discrimination among the dyslexic children as compared to non-dyslexic children. These findings advocate strong relationship between learning disability emotional problems and stigma in children.