Creativity, Cognitive Functioning and Attribution Style of Children with Dyslexia Symptoms

Abstract

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that hinders the brain’s ability to recognize, spell, and decode words accurately and fluently despite having adequate intellectual ability. This quantitative study explored the association between dyslexia, cognitive functioning, attribution style, and creativity in children with dyslexia symptoms. In addition, the moderating role of dyslexia and the mediating effect of attribution style were also investigated, as well as the relationship between cognitive functioning and creativity and its subscales. There were five subscales of creativity: fluency, originality, elaboration, abstraction, and resistance to premature closure. The correlational research design was employed. The sample was initially comprised of two hundred participants with dyslexia symptoms, aged 6 – 15 years (N = 200, age range = 6 – 15 years), studying at two government schools of Lahore and one government school of Kot Radha Kishan, recruited through purposive sampling. However, after analyzing data using SPSS-26, the sample size was reduced to 188 (N = 188). The findings suggested a significant association between dyslexia, cognitive functioning, attribution style, and creativity. The findings also indicated that dyslexia significantly moderates the association between cognitive functioning and creativity. Similarly, it is a significant moderator in the relationship between cognitive functioning and two of subscales of creativity i.e., fluency, and elaboration subscales. This research referred to the attribution style as the intentional one. The results revealed that intentional attribution style partially mediates the association between cognitive functioning and creativity. It also partially mediated the relationship between cognitive functioning and two of the subscales of creativity, i.e., fluency and originality. There were two subscales of intentional attribution style, i.e., ambiguous and non-intentional attribution style. Only ambiguous attribution style was found to significantly mediate the association between cognitive functioning and creativity. In addition, it also partially mediated the path between xix cognitive functioning and one of the subscales of creativity, i.e., fluency. Moreover, the sample was divided into two groups based on age, i.e., children and adolescents. The study involved 67 children aged 6-10 and 121 adolescents aged 11-15. The results revealed that dyslexia significantly moderate the association between cognitive functioning and creativity and one of its subscales, i.e., fluency in adolescents only. No mediating impact of intentional attribution style and its subscales was observed on the relationship between cognitive functioning and creativity and its subscales in children and adolescent subgroups. The study emphasized the importance of considering individual differences in children with varying degrees and intensity of dyslexia symptoms while implementing educational and therapeutic interventions to improve their cognitive abilities and creative potential.