Transcript Girls are better, even dyslexic girls?! Gender differences

Girls are better, even girls with dyslexia?!
Gender differences in reading performance of
teenagers with and without dyslexia
Dr. Anita Blonk
Dr. Anna Bosman
University of Nijmegen
Department of Special Education
[email protected]
[email protected]
Introduction
Students with dyslexia are often regarded
slow learners. Despite intensive reading
and spelling instruction, and practice,
they appear highly resistant to
intervention activities, as indicated by
the fact that their reading and/or
spelling levels generally remain at a
significantly lower level than that of
students without dyslexia.
Protocol Dyslexia Secundary
Education (to appear in 2004)
The main goal of the protocol is the incorporation of
special facilities for dyslexic children in every-day
practice in different types of secondary education.
To be able to help all students with dyslexia, it needs to
be established who has and who has not dyslexia,
since that is not yet clear when students enter
secondary education. The protocol also includes a
procedure for the classification and diagnosis of
dyslexia. It includes for instance three tests and a
sample of a questionnaire for the assessment of
dyslexia in primary school.
Gender differences
A different prevalence of dyslexia is often cited
for boys and girls: ratios differ between 2:1
and 9:1 more boys suffering from dyslexia.
Women perform significantly better than man
on reading related tests (for instance Marlow
et al. 2001)
This study: Materials
Three, newly developed reading-related tests
for students who have just started secondary
school (authors: Henneman, Kleijnen, Smits):
• silent-reading task: three minutes of silent
reading.
• a spelling task: 12 sentences composed of
words with increasing complexity (“het
wonderlijke weer”, = “the surprising
weather”).
• Writing task: copying a sentence as often as
possible in two minutes (cf., Hatcher,
Snowling, & Griffith, 2002).
This study:Participants
Boys
Girls
Total
1260
1231
2491
With dyslexia
certificate
113
52
165
Total
1373
1283
2656
Without
dyslexia
certificate
Results of the reading-related tasks of all
participants : reading task
1700
1600
1500
reading tas k
typ e o f schoo l
1400
VMBO
HAVO
1300
VWO
boys
gir ls
sex
Results of the reading-related tasks of all
participants : spelling task
92
90
88
86
84
82
spe ll ing task
typ e o f schoo l
80
VMBO
78
HAVO
76
VWO
boys
girls
sex
Results of the reading-related tasks of all
participants: writing task
240
230
220
210
wri ti ng tas k
typ e o f schoo l
VMBO
200
HAVO
190
VWO
boys
girls
sex
Conclusions
• Significant differences between girls and boys
and between schooltypes for all tree tasks:
– Girls’ performance is better than boys’ for all three
tasks: writing, spelling and reading
• Except for spelling and reading at VWO type (no
difference)
– All three reading related tasks differentiate
between schooltypes:
VWO >HAVO >VMBO
Comparison of participants with and
without dyslexia certificate
With
Mean Performances dyslexia
certificate
Without dyslexia
certificate
Differences
between
means
p < .001
Score on Writing
191
(n= 132)
220
(n= 2096)
s
Score on Reading
1075
(n=151)
1485
(n=2377)
s
Score on Spelling
77
(n=162)
87
(n=2482)
s
Performance of boys and girls with and
without dyslexia certificate
Mean
performances
Girls
without
Girls with
dyslexia
Boys
without
Boys with
dyslexia
Score on
writing
224
197
210
183
Score on
reading
1526
1089
1418
1044
Score on
spelling
89
77
86
78
Conclusions
• Significant differences between the
performance of boys and girls without
dyslexia certificate
• Same difference in performance for
writing: the difference is 14, but not
significant (due to smaller group)
• less differences between performance
of boys and girls for reading (mean
difference of 45) and spelling (1).
Mean score comparisons on all three tasks between lowperforming girls without dyslexia and girls with dyslexia
Performance of
girls (N=1353)
Mean Score on
Writing <197
Mean Score on
Reading <1089
Mean Score on
Spelling <77
With
dyslexia
certificate
165
(n=21;1.5%)
Without
dyslexia
certificate
170
n.s.
(n=188;14%)
786
935
(n=23;1.6%)
(n=139;10.2%)
50
39
(n=13;1%)
Differences
between
means
p < .05
(n=55; 4%)
s.
n.s.
Mean score comparisons on all three tasks between lowperforming boys without dyslexia and boys with dyslexia
Performance of
boys (N=1360)
Mean Score on
Writing < 183
Mean Score on
Reading <1044
Mean Score on
Spelling < 78
With
dyslexia
certificate
Without
dyslexia
certificate
147
157
(n=37; 2.7%)
(n=269;19.7%)
787
875
(n=51; 3.8%)
(n=209;15.4%)
61
52
(n=53; 3.9%)
(n=188;13.8%)
Differences
between
means
p < .05
s.
s.
n.s.
Discussion issues
To interpret these data, three issues arise:
1. What are the implications for the
classification of dyslexia? Do we need
separate norms for boys and girls in
secondary education to obtain a valid
comparison with the standard group?
2. Since performance at the beginning of
primary grade hardly differs between boys
and girls, we wonder at what age readingrelated performance of boys and girls starts
to diverge?
3. Do girls gain more from intervention than
boys?