Dictation errors among students of primary schools in Iranian populations

Introduction: Dictation as an important academic ability involves divers cortical processes so that any problem in one of them may lead to a dictation error. Identifying current dictation errors helps specialists to understand its causes more comprehensively and to use the most effective interventional approaches. The aim of this study was to compare the most common dictation errors between primary students of Semnan and Babol cities in Iran. Material and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, dictation samples of 2215 Semnan’s primary students and 1664 Babol’s primary students were collected. All of participants had normal I.Q, hearing skills and cranial nerves functions. Dictation materials were chosen from their books and dictated by their teachers. All of errors were categorized according to error kinds. Results: There were significant differences between Semnan’s and Babol’s primary students according to the frequency of dictation errors and their grades. Some of errors such as visual memory, educational and dysgraphia errors were significantly common between groups and all grades. Semnan’s primary students had more dictation errors in first and second grades than Babol’s primary students, although this condition reversed in other grades. Conclusion: Dialect may influence dictation and its errors so there should be various therapeutic and educational focuses for different dialects. The highest levels of visual memory, educational and accuracy errors mean that it is necessary to pay more attention on their prerequisites developmental skills to prevent and to treat them.