Comparison of Sustained Attention in Children with Learning Disabilities and Normal Children

Introduction: Attention is one of the cases which the current theories about learning disabilities
emphasis them. The purpose of this study was comparing sustained attention performance in children
with learning disabilities and normal children.
Method: This study's research design was causal-comparative design. The study population consisted
all of third, fourth and fifth elementary grade children in Tabriz city. The statistical sample included
30 children with reading learning disability, 30 children with math learning disability and 20 children
with writing expression learning disability who were selected by Nama reading and dyslexia, Iran Key
Math Diagnostic Arithmetic and writing expression tests, respectively and 30 normal children (control
group). To select children with learning disabilities and normal children, available and randomly
sampling manners were used, respectively. All of samples were in the age range of 9-12 years and IQ
range of 90-115. To assess IQ, the Raven test and to measure sustained attention, Continuous
Performance test were used.
Results: The data analyzed by MANOVA, ANOVA and LSD POST HOC statistical tests showed that
children with reading and math learning disabilities have different and poor performance in
Continuous Performance Test compared to normal children. There was no different between
performance of children with writing expression learning disability and normal in the mentioned test.
Conclusion: Based on research findings, children with reading and math learning disabilities have
poor performance in sustained attention compared to normal children. So, it would be better for
responsible people to prepare programs to improve attention performance in such children.