Activity, attention, and aggression in learning disabled children

Abstract

Research has documented a reliable statistical association between specific learning disabilities in children and certain difficulties in adapting to the behavioral demands of traditional elementary school classrooms. As compared to others their age, many learning disabled children are overactive, inattentive, impulsive, and distractible in such classrooms. Indirect attempts to treat the learning disabilities by changing these associated behaviors have, however, not been very successful. It is certainly possible, for example, to reduce a child's activity and increase on-task behavior by drugs, behavior modification, or other environmental manipulations, but this seems to have little effect on learning unless academic performance is itself the focus of the treatment. Direct remediation of the academic problem, on the other hand, often has favorable effects on some of the other disturbing behaviors. Thus therapists should focus their efforts upon improving the child's academic skills, regarding hyperactivity and attention deficits as secondary problems. Another problem sometimes associated with learning disabilities is aggressive behavior. Aggression is quite predictive of future maladjustment and thus should be of major concern to the therapist in its own right.This paper examines the evidence concerning certain behavioral correlates of specific learning disabilities in children and considers the implications of these behaviors for treatment. For purposes of this review, a specific learning disability was defined as impaired performance in reading, arithmetic, or spelling in a child of at least average measured intellectual ability. The behaviors to be considered are the following: overactivity, attentional deficit, impulsivity, distractibility, and aggression. OveractivityIt has long been thought that hyperactivity and learning disabilities were overlapping areas of difficulty for children, though until recently one had to rely on informal clinical impressions in assessing the relationship between the two. Hinton and Knights (1971) in a followup study of children with learning problems, for example, stated that 35 percent of the children they studied were considered hyperactive. Keogh (1971) speculated that a child's overactivity might interfere with learning by disrupting both attention and information processing in the classroom. Currently the evidence is equivocal as to whether learning disabled children are actually more active in the classroom than others. Cobb (1972) observed fourth grade children in two schools for nine days during arithmetic periods. He found that overactivity (out-of-chair behavior) during these observations was a significant negative predictor of children's scores on standardized achievement tests in reading, arithmetic, and spelling. McKinney, Mason, Perkerson, and Clifford (1975) observed second grade children's behaviors during language arts classes. Gross motor activity for a given child was not a significant predictor of school achievement. In research and increasingly in practice ...

Classification and validation of behavioral subtypes of learning-disabled children.

“…In general, the educational importance of these findings about the classroom behavior of LD students is supported by evidence from other investigators (Bryan, 1974;Keogh, Tehir, & Windeguth-Behn, 1974;Routh, 1979) as well as by research linking classroom behavior patterns to achievement in more typical samples of school children (Hoge & Luce, 1979;McKinney, Mason, Perkerson, & Clifford, 1975).…”

Depression, Anxiety, and Attributional Style in Learning-Disabled and Non-Learning-Disabled Children

“…Previous literature has documented externalizing behavior difficulties in LD children (e.g., see Routh, 1979, for a review). Learning disability has been linked with attention deficit and perhaps with overactivity, impulsivity, distractibility, and aggression.…”

Relationships between Cognitive Styles and Levels of Aggression in Preschool Children

“…Youth with learning disabilities are inept with social skills. When combined with the fact that learning disabilities are usually accompanied by overactivity, attention deficits, impulsivity, and distractibility, the result is a child who attracts the attention of society (Routh, 1979).…”