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Objective: In Tunisia, learning disabilities (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia) are unknown by physicians, education professionals and the wider public. School-age children do not yet receive a systematic screening for learning disabilities, as in other countries. Until then, there are no screening or diagnosis tests and prevalence figures are missing. For this, the present study was carried out in order to explore prevalence of learning disabilities in the region of Sfax.
Methods: This is a study conducted in the context of a federated search at the national level. It was a cross-sectional and descriptive study, covering 687 students aged 7 to 9 years old. A screening of children with learning difficulties was done by teachers and school doctors based on academic performance in the global and in reading, written expression and mathematics. Children identified as having learning difficulties benefited from pedopsychiatric semi-structured interview, based on the DSM-IV-TR in the presence of one or both parents and from a neurological examination (coordination, search of abnormal movements, minor signs). The assessment of intelligence quotient was made by the EDEI-A Arabized and standardized in Tunisia. The speech and language assessment was used to evaluate temporal and spatial orientation, laterality, spoken language and written language (reading, graphics and dictation, and mathematics). Meetings between child psychiatrists, neurologists, speech therapists and psychologists who participated in this study helped confronting the different data. As exclusion criteria, we selected: a severe psycho-educational deficiency, an IQ below 50, a neurological disease or a mental disorder that can explain the learning disabilities. Considering the unavailability of appropriate tests in Tunisia to carry diagnoses of learning disorders, the diagnosis was based clinically. The child psychiatric interview and neurological clinical examination with the refinement by speech and language assessment and psychological evaluation were our inclusion criteria and the support of our diagnosis.
Results: The prevalence of learning disorders was 8.15%, The prevalence of reading disorder was 7.6%. The prevalence of the disorder of written expression was 7.6%.The prevalence of the mathematics disorder was 2.8%.
Conclusions: The results of this study are consistent with those of the literature and show that learning disorders are common in Tunisia. The achievement of screening and diagnosis tests is a crucial step to achieve. Awareness of the health and education professionals is essential.