Background & Objectives: Learning disability encompasses a broad range of academic problems, and its full understanding requires attention to the social, emotional, and behavioral aspects of the child's life. This term emerged from the need to identify and serve students who consistently fail their tasks, i. e., not specified within the traditional context of exceptional children. The present research aimed to investigate the role of teachers' professional knowledge in identifying students with learning disabilities. Methods: The present research was of applied nature in terms of its purpose and applied descriptive and survey methods. The statistical population of the current study included primary school teachers in Maragheh City (N=1000). The sample size was calculated as 278 by Cochran, and they were selected by stratified random sampling technique. In the present study, the evolution model of Beyerman and Boehman (2005), as well as Manis and et al. (2007), was presented to examine the role of teachers' professional knowledge in identifying students with learning disabilities in the Education Department of Maragheh City, Iran, in 2017. The data gathering tool was a standard questionnaire. After measuring the scale’ s validity and reliability, it was provided to the statistical sample for completion. To determine the scale’ s validity, its face and content validity was established. To test the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient method was used. The value of these statistics for teachers' professional knowledge questions and the identification of students with learning disabilities were equal to 922. 0 and 946. 0, respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were implemented to analyze the obtained data. The descriptive statistic and inferential statistics were used to classify, diagnose, and describe the collected data. To test the research hypotheses, the Kolmogorov– Smirnov test, Pearson’ s correlation coefficient, and regression analysis were used. Results: The archived results indicated that the professional knowledge of teachers and its dimensions (teachers' knowledge of professional skills of teaching (r=0. 438, p<0. 001), teachers' knowledge of modern methods of teaching (r=0. 392, p<0. 001), teachers' knowledge in applying educational technologies in basic science courses (r=0. 242, p<0. 001), teachers' knowledge in implementing instructional designs in the basic sciences (r=0. 353, p<0. 001), and teachers' knowledge in evaluating basic science courses (r=0. 454, p<0. 001) were effective in identifying students with learning disabilities. Conclusion: The professional knowledge of teachers and its dimensions impacted the identification of students with learning disabilities in Education and Nursing Departments in Maragheh City.

Aim: Aim of present study was to determine implicit motor sequence learning in dyslexic children and to compare it with normal children.Methods: Research design was ex-post factor and study population included dyslexic children of learning disabilities rehabilitation centers of Tabriz city, with total size of 740 students, in 2009, March to May. Among them, 20 students with diagnosis of dyslexia were chosen from two centers (Baghcheban and SoleymanKhater) non-randomly and were matched with non-dyslexic control group with regard to chronological age, sex, social- economical class and IQ. The study instruments were dyslexia symptoms checklist (Michaeili and Farahani, 2006), revised Wechsler IQ Scale for Children (WISC-III, 2006), Pouretemad Reading Test (2002) and Serial Reaction Time Task (Nejati, 2006).Results: results showed that there aren’t significant differences between dyslexic and non-dyslexic children in the speed effect (reaction time) and accuracy effect (accuracy) of implicit motor sequence learning, But blocks mean comparison showed significant differences between two groups in both reaction time and accuracy, and dyslexics had overall poor performance than Non-dyslexics in both indexes of implicit motor sequence learning.Conclusion: Though dyslexic children have deficits in motor ability and skills, but implicit motor sequence learning is intact. Intact implicit learning probably has some implications in reading instruction of dyslexic children.

Introduction: Although there is a broad consensus about the importance of visual perception in reading, its role in the development of dyslexia is highly debated. In order to understand the relationship between dyslexia and disorders of visual perception, we have compared color opponent contrast sensitivity in dyslexic children with that in normal subjects.Materials and methods: 3 dyslexic and 3 normal children participated in this study. Their responses to stimuli, evoked by means of a pattern-generator software, were recorded in three spatial frequencies: 5, 8, and 18 cycles per degree (cpd). In each spatial frequency, the contrast sensitivity test was executed in two different levels (pattern detection and color discrimination) once in yellow background and once again in blue background.Results: In general, there was no significant difference between dyslexic and normal children in almost all the tests performed. Nevertheless, dyslexic subjects have shown reduced sensitivity in pattern detection both in yellow and blue backgrounds, yet they had better sensitivity than normal subjects in color discrimination.Conclusion: The results from comparison between dyslexic and control groups showed that color contrast sensitivity cannot be a proper differential indicator for dyslexia. It suggests that dyslexia does not affect all functions of the visual system. Individuals with dyslexia, however, may have anomalous perceptual responses albeit normal basic and primary visual functions.

This study compares the working memory in dyslexic and normal children. The method of the present study was descriptive (causal-comparative) method. The study sample included 30 students with reading disorder and 30 students without reading disorder who were matched in terms of IQ, age and gender. To identify the students with reading disorder, phonological awareness test was used, and to assess the working memory Working Memory. Index of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) was used. The findings showed that there are significant differences between the working memory in dyslexic and normal students. It was found that the working memory in dyslexic children is considerably lower than normal children. Thus students with reading disorder are faced with serious problems in working memory.

Background: Through research on the role of storytelling skills in building learning and writing elements, little attention has been paid to assessing strengths and weaknesses in story structure, especially microstructure, in dyslexic students. The purpose of this study is to assess the role of this structure as a manifestation of the verbal and cognitive performance of these students. Methods: This is a descriptive analysis study. To identify dyslexic students, the Screening test for dyslexia diagnosis by Shafii et al. and Shirazi-Nilipour’, s reading diagnostic test were used. A total of 31 dyslexic students at secondary elementary school were identified during testing, and the remaining subjects (n=35 students) were assigned to the control group. The story retelling test was used to assess students’,storytelling skills. A parametric test (independentsamples t-test) was used to compare normally distributed data. A nonparametric test (Mann-Whitney U test) was used for non-normal data. Pearson’, s correlation test was also used to examine correlations for normally distributed data, and Spearman’, s correlation test was used for non-normal data. Results: Students with dyslexia had significantly lower mean scores in all substructures of the macrostructure, including topic maintenance, sequence of events, and the main information. They also had significantly lower microstructure scores, including mean length of utterance, conjunction use, and syntactic complexity, compared to their normal counterparts (P<0. 05). Conclusion: Dyslexic students perform worse than their peers on most micro- and macrostructures of the retelling test. In other words, these students have poor linguistic and cognitive prerequisites for understanding and mastering reading skills. On the other hand, the results show that there is a meaningful association between storytelling skills and subsequent reading and comprehension acquisition.

Background and Aim: A review of the neurophysiological studies suggests that dyslexia is the result of a deficit in the magnocellular part of the visual system. Most of the evidence cited in favour of this hypothesis is from contrast sensitivity studies. This study tested the hypothesis that visual processing deficits may be present in dyslexia by comparing the visual contrast sensitivity of dyslexic children and controls.Materials and Methods: contrast thresholds were recorded in 67 children, 26 dyslexic (mean age of 8.76±1.33) and 41 control group (mean age 9.07±1.40). Contrast sensitivity was measured using Freiburg acuity and contrast test (FrACT) version 3.7 at frequency 5cpd in both eyes. The results were then analyzed using SPSS-18.Results: mean contrast threshold of Right eyes in dyslexic group (0.62±0.12) and control group (0.68 ± 0.15), mean contrast threshold of Left eyes in dyslexic group (0.61±0.16) and control group (0.67±0.15) were measured. There were no statistically significant differences between two groups in ight eyes (pvalue: 0.279) and in left eyes (pvalue: 0.124).Conclusion: The present study do not support the hypothesis of magnocellular visual pathway deficit in dyslexia. Our result show that there isn’t relationship between reading ability and contrast sensitivity in dyslexic children.

Background and Objectives: Learning disorders including dyslexia result in various aspects of life failures specially students academic situation and low self esteem, or physical, psychological, psychophysiological, and behavioral problems. Dyslexia is a disorder that one is unable to acquire language reading, writing and spelling skills appropriate to his or her intellectual capability, in spite of usual instructional experiences. Investigating this disorder and identifying factors related to it can prevent its consequences and help to solve physical and psychological problems.Materials and Methods: In this ex post facto designed research the motor skills of dyslexic and normal students was studied. In this regard 24 dyslexic (12 person of 2nd grade and 12 of 3rd grade) in the form of accessible and 24 nondyslexic (12 person of 2nd grade and 12 of 3rd rade) as random samples were selected from primary schools. Then they were administered by Lincoln- Ozeretsky battery of motor skill tests. Data were analyzed finally using dependent, independent t student and chi square tests.Results: The findings indicate that there was significant difference between dyslexic and non dyslexic overall and fine motor skills and latency in motor development, but there wasn’t such a difference between their IQ and gross motor skills. There was intragroup significant difference between fine and gross motor skills among dyslexic subjects as well.Conclusion: According to scientists, motor capabilities form the basis of later learnings. Some learning disabled children are slower than non disabled ones in motor development in spite of their normal IQ. It seems they have poor cognitive components in acquiring motor skills because these skills specially fine motor skills require some degrees of activity in cognitive area; this is why some people may learn or develop motor activities slowly. Many researchers suggest it is due to some minimal brain damages. But regardless the causes, modification of those motor difficulties is necessary before beginning other skills training.

Introduction: The purpose of this research was to compare the working memory performance in dyslexic and non-dyslexic students and investigate the effect of rehearsal on working memory performance in dyslexic children. Method: This is a quasi-experimental study. Statistical sample of research consisted of 15 dyslexic students who were selected by achievable method as test group and 15 normal students who were selected randomly as control group. Data was collected by working memory test battery for children (WMTB-C) designed by Pickering & Gathercole. Rehearsal performed on dyslexic group. Results: Performance of working memory in dyslexic students was weaker than normal students. Conclusion: Rehearsal does not have a significant effect on working memory performance of dyslexics.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an empowerment program based on self-regulation executive functions on the reading performance of dyslexic primary school students. Method: The study employed quasi-experimental design, using pretest, posttest and follow up with the control group. The population of the study was all dyslexic boys students in the fourth grade of primary school in Islamshahr city in the academic year of 201718. 38 students were selected through combined sampling method (Census and Cluster sampling), and were randomly divided into an experiment group and a control group (20 in the experiment group and 18 in the control group). The experimental group received an intervention program in 2 months (15 sessions of 50 minutes, and 2 months of environmental modifications and practical interventions that was integrated into daily curricula). Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance, one-variable covariance. Findings: The results showed there were significant differences between reading speed, reading accuracy and comprehension students with and without dyslexia. Conclusion: the empowerment program based on selfregulation executive functions can improve the reading performance of dyslexic primary school students.