a comparison of memory and mental development between dyslexia and normal children

introduction: the purpose of this study was to compare the memory and mental development between dyslexia and normal children in khoy city. material and methods: this is causal-comparative study. the population of this research included all normal and dyslexic female students who were third- or fifth-graders (aged 9-12 years) from primary schools in khoy city, iran, in the academic year 2013-2014. the sample consisted of 100 students into the two groups as dyslexic and normal groups that 50 students were selected for each group and then were examined. sampling of dyslexic students was non-random available sampling from the center of learning disorders and for normal group was multi-stages cluster random sampling. the measurement tools were wechsler memory scale and mental development scale of piaget. the data were analyzed using analysis of variance. results: the results indicated that in mental development scores; there was a significant difference between dyslexia and normal students (p < 0.001), as well as in working memory scores, there was a significant difference between dyslexia and normal students (p < 0.001). conclusion: dyslexia students have lower capacity in terms of memory and mental development than normal students that poor capacity of working memory and mental holding may contribute problems in reading specially dyslexia in elementary students. keywords: working memory; mental development and dyslexia; piaget; development theory