The main purpose of this investigation was to ascertain what disturbing classroom reactions might be attributed to the attempt to teach reading and related subjects to illiterate, defective, adolescent boys. The interest directing this research was not concerned with describing the longitudinal personalities of poor readers, but was centered upon discovering how they react to the academic situation in which reading and similar subjects are taught. This study was also designed as a simple test of the assumption made by Dollard and others 2 that aggression inevitably follows frustration.Although the results of various studies of the relationship between reading disability and problem behavior are not clear-cut, they do indicate that children with relatively normal intelligence who cannot read often present serious personality problems. Monroe and Backus' and Sherman 4 summarized a number of these investigations. The present inquiry, however, was concerned with children having inferior intelligence. They had been committed to an institution for the training and rehabilitation of higher level mentally defective boys and girls.
PROCEDURESTwo groups of boys were selected from the population of the Wayne County Training School. Group I consisted of twenty-eight boys who read below grade 3.0. Group II contained twenty-eight boys paired with Group I on the basis of chronological age, intelligence quotient, and consequently mental age, who read better than grade 3.0. The reading grade assigned to each case was determined by the average of 1 Thanks are due the Wayne County Training School at Northville, Michigan, for use of their records, and Dr. Thorleif G. Hegge, who read portions of this manuscript. The study was initiated while the author was a member of the staff of that institution.
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