Dyslexia: Group Screening among 15–16‐Year‐Olds in Oslo, Norway

Abstract

In 15–16 year olds from Oslo, Norway, we investigated the occurrence of self‐reported dyslexia and reading/writing difficulties (RWD), and we measured dyslexic symptoms using the Duvan dyslexia screening test. The prevalence of self‐reported dyslexia was 8.2%, while 10.4% reported severe or moderate RWD. The group of self‐reported dyslexics obtained lower mean‐values on Duvan than the non‐dyslexic group (125.7 [SD = 20.2] versus 153.2 [SD = 23.4]), but not on the test of general ability. The questionnaire items on dyslexia and RWD, as well as gender, ethnicity and general ability, significantly predicted Duvan scores (explained variance, R ² = 0.25). More research is needed to explore the precision of Duvan as a screening tool for dyslexic symptoms among Norwegian adolescents.

Keywords:

• dyslexia
• methodology
• screening
• epidemiology