PERSONALITY PROFILE OF STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITY

Abstract

This study aims to describe the personality profile of students who have any kind of learning disability from the fourth grade of a public elementary school from São José, Santa Catarina, Brazil. 52 students from the 159 participants of the survey, were designated by their teachers as having learning difficulties, from which 33 were boys and 19 were girls from nine to fifteen years of age. The students were evaluated according to the Personality Traits for Children (SISTO, 2004). To analyze the data, both descriptive (mean, percentage and frequencies) and inferential statistics (T test and Spearman’s correlation test) were used. Even though there hasn’t been found any significant difference between the genders, the boys were more designated as having learning disabilities. Concerning personality aspects, the boys also had higher mean values related to aggressive and exciting attitudes. No significant correlation was found between the personality profile and the different levels of learning difficulties. The most evident result of the study was the difference between the genders and both personality traits and learning disability. This result was already expected, since there are already many studies which proof these differences, however, as children development is such a complex and changeable issue, the importance of new studies is undeniable.