Quantitative and Qualitative analysis of the written text in individuals with dyslexia

Disleksija je poremećaj čitanja i pisanja koji traje cijeli život. S obzirom na to da nije prolazna teškoća tretman je nužan kako bi pomogao osobama s disleksijom pri stvaranju strategija za nošenje s teškoćom te iskorištavanju njhovih dobrih strana. Da bi se mogla napraviti kvalitetna procjena, a nakon nje i tretman prilagođen pojedincu, potrebno je poznavati poremećaj i njegova karakteristična obilježja. Ovaj rad donosi analizu pogrešaka kod starijih osoba s disleksijom, koji su rjeđe ispitivani od mlađih, kako bi se dobio uvid u njihovo funkcioniranje u domeni pisanja. Sudionike istraživanja čine dvije skupine ispitanika, 14 osoba s disleksijom i 14 ispitanika bez teškoća, od 11 do 16 godina starosti, uparenih po dobi i spolu. Analizirane su tri vrste teksta: esej na zadanu temu, pisanje priče prema slikama i pisanje diktata. Prvi cilj rada bio je usporedba količine i vrste pogrešaka kod urednih ispitanika i osoba s disleksijom. Drugi cilj bio je usporediti ispitanike s obzirom na duljinu teksta te duljinu i složenost rečenica. Treći cilj bio je saznati u kojoj vrsti teksta ispitanici najviše griješe. Tekstovi su preuzeti iz Hrvatskog korpusa neprofesionalnog pisanog jezika te uneseni i transkribirani u programu CLAN (Computerized Language Analysis) u okviru baze podataka CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System, MacWhinney, 2000). Podaci su kvalitativno analizirani pomoću programa Microsoft Excel (2007) a kvantitativna analiza napravljena je pomoću programa za statističku obradu IBM SPSS Statistics 20. Rezultati su pokazali da ispitanici s disleksijom proizvode više pogrešaka od kontrolne skupine, u svim vrstama teksta. Najzastupljenija vrsta pogrešaka su pogreške povezane s fonološkom obradom i one koje se javljaju zbog neusvojenosti pravopisnih konvencija. Skupine se ne razlikuju što se tiče duljine rečenica i složenosti napisanih tekstova. Svi ispitanici najviše su griješili kod pisanja diktata, pa pisanja priče prema slikama a najmanje u pisanju eseja na zadanu temu. Rezultati ovoga rada donose vrijedne informacije koje bi se mogle iskoristiti u planiranju procjene i tretmana osoba s disleksijom. Posebno je vrijedno što se rezultati odnose na starije osobe s disleksijom jer o njihovim pogreškama imamo još manje informacija nego o onima kod mlađih osoba s disleksijom. Također, mogu biti korisni kod sastavljanja testova za procjenu disleksije kojih, barem zasad, u hrvatskom jeziku nema.Dyslexia is a lifelong reading and writing disorder. Considering the fact that dyslexia is not transitory disorder, the treatment is nessecary in order to help individuals with dyslexia at creating strategies for dealing with difficulties and making the most of the positive sides they have. Knowing about disorder and its important features is crucial for making good assessment and good treatment adjusted to an individual. This research brings analysis of errors by older individuals with dyslexia which are not as often investigated as younger population, to get insight into their funcitoning in writing domain. The participants in this research are two groups, 14 individuals with dyslexia and 14 individuals without dyslexia, at the age of 11 to 16 years old, paired by age and sex. Three types of texts are analyzed: essay on given topic, writing story by pictures and writing dictation. First goal of this research was comparison of errors type and quantity. Second goal was comparison of groups by length of written texts and sentence length and complexity. Third goal was to find out in which type of text they make the most errors. Texts are taken over from Croatian corpus of unprofessional written language and enrolled and transcribed in programme CLAN (Computerized Language Analysis) as a part of database CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System, MacWhinney, 2000). Qualitative analysis of data is made in Microsoft Excel (2007) and quantitative analysis is made by programme for statistic processing IBM SPSS Statistic 20. Results have shown that individuals with dyslexia are making more errors than control group, in all text types. The most common type of errors were errors connected to phonological processing and with non-adoption of ortographic rules. There are no differences between groups related to length of texts and sentence length and complexity. All participants have made most of the errors in writing dictation, then in writing story by pictures and the least, in writing an essay. Results of this research contribute to this field by bringing valuable information which can be used in planning of assessment and treatment for individuals with dyslexia. The age of participants is of special value because there are less information about older individuals with dyslexia than about younger ones. Also, results can be useful in composition of assesment tests which, at least for now, do not exist in Croatian language