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Self-esteem and Multiple Intelligences of Students with Dyslexia

This study was based on the theory that students’ academic performance depends on or is influenced by various factors such as their self-esteem and multiple intelligences. This study was based on West’s 1997 theory explaining the hemispheric dominance of each person’s brain, by Gardner i 1993 in his MI theory, by Armstrong in his MI theory too, by Levine in 2002, by Lazear in 1993, by Shaw in 1994 and by Pollock, Waller and Pollit in 1994. Multiple intelligences include linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial and natural intelligences. The study hypothesized that there is a significant relationship between self-esteem, multiple intelligences, and academic performance of freshmen at risk of dyslexia at Gingoog City National Comprehensive Secondary School for the 2007-2008 school year. . The method used was the descriptive survey.

This study was conducted at Gingoog City National Comprehensive Secondary School, Gingoog City. Respondents were twenty-nine (29) students and twenty-three (23) were male, while all six (6) were female who identified themselves as at risk for dyslexia. The three (3) sets of questionnaires were administered to collect necessary data such as the Dyslexic Student and Adult Identification Test, the Barksdale Assessment of Self-Esteem (SEI), and the Multiple Intelligence Development Series (MIDAS). The statistical tools used were percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis.

The findings reveal that there was a predominance among males with low self-esteem because more males with dyslexia were identified. In addition, women could handle their difficulties by being studious, diligent, obedient, patient, and striving in the midst of their difficulties.

The findings further reveal that the majority of respondents showed signs of mild dyslexia. Twenty (20) of 69% of the students presented a lack of self-esteem. Nine (9) or 31% were men with severe disabilities. However, none of the respondents had linguistic intelligence. This is understandable given their difficulty in reading, as the expert said that learning disability affects students’ language processing (Wadlington, 2005).

It was found that these respondents had different types of intelligence. Ten (10) or 34.5 percent of the students had intrapersonal skills, (10) or 34.5 percent had interpersonal skills and musical skills as well, four (4) or 13.8 percent had logical skills and spatial skills, and only one (10) o 3.4 percent had naturalistic intelligence.

The average level of academic performance of the students was 75.93 percent. This shows poor results in their academic subjects. There is no significant relationship between self-esteem, multiple intelligences and academic performance.