The relationship between intestinal parasitosis and child educational development, in terms of cognition and learning, has been reported with important evidence in the international scientific literature, but in the Dominican Republic there are few studies in this regard. In order to record the characteristics of intestinal parasites in relation to children's reading efficiency, a descriptive and correlational study was carried out with a sample of 107 schoolchildren who were in fourth grade in an urban and semi-rural school in Barahona. Standardized tests were applied to measure reading comprehension and diagnostic techniques for intestinal parasitic infection in children were used. Parasitic infection reached 54.7 % and of this percentage, 43.1 % were polyparasitized. The protozoan species were the predominant ones, with only two cases of infection by worms (T. trichiura and Á. Lumbricoides). Giardia lamblia was the most frequent species. Very low reading speed was found. A tendency was identified that points to finding worse results in the tests in the groups of students with parasites, especially with the species G. lamblia related with fonologic habilities. With this project, the review and analysis of the situation of parasitosis and the reading process from a multidisciplinary approach has begun in our country. The results obtained contribute to generating useful knowledge to recommend cross-cutting actions to improve the quality of early childhood education.
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