Children's theories about reading difficulties: a developmental study

Abstract

Research findings indicate that children construct integrated metacognitive theories about cognitive processes. These theories have been hypothesized to play a major role in learning and development. In the present study, the development of children’s metacognitive theories about the causes, manifestation, and remediation of reading difficulties was investigated. Twenty-one subjects from each of grade 1, 3, 5, and 7 participated in two experimental sessions. Each subject was presented with four short stories (i.e., two stories per session). Each story depicted a child of the same sex and age as the subject who is a poor reader. The intellectual ability (high versus low) of the depicted children was varied systematically across the four stories. Following Each story presentation subjects’ memory for the story propositions was assessed. Next, subjects were asked to determine (1) the cause of the depicted child’s reading difficulty; (2) the manifestation (i.e., specific aspect(s) of the reading process affected) of the reading difficulty; and (3) remediation strategies. The major findings were that, regardless of age, or the ability and effort levels depicted in the stories, subjects (1) primarily attributed the cause of reading difficulties to either insufficient effort or specific cognitive problems (e.g. inadequate attentional processing); (2) considered that reading difficulties may be manifested in either word identification or comprehension problems; and (3) recommended an increase in effort as the primary remediation strategy. The implications of these findings, for both learning to read and for the social consequences of reading difficulties in school, are discussed.