Evaluating the Readability Levels of Elementary School Textbooks Regarding Students with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Although limited information is available regarding the number of students with learning
disabilities in Turkey, it’s believed that there is a large number of students in this category. Reading is the area
that students with learning disabilities have the most difficulty. This difficulty effects the students’ attitudes
towards reading. Therefore, especially during the preparation of textbooks, educators should consider attitudes of
these students towards reading and readability levels of the textbooks should be appropriate for these students.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the readability levels of textsbooks (1- 4th grade) by using readability
formulas and compare these findings with expert opinions. According to the findings of the study, readability
levels of texts in those books are “easy” and some text in third and fourth grade are in “medium” difficulty
according to the Ateşman readability formula values.