Learning Disability Quarterly

Although social skills training or intervention for children with learning disabilities has been widely used in the past 15 years, little systematic synthesis of its effectiveness is available. The current study is a meta-analysis of 53 studies on social skills training completed during this period. The mean effect size (ES) obtained was only .211, with very few differences among teachers, peers, or children themselves who judged effectiveness of training. This relatively modest effect is discussed in relation to other special interventions for children with school learning or behavioral disorders and possible links between learning disabilities and social skills that might account for poor treatment outcome.

A social relations approach was used to examine the way adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) rate their own and their peers' attributions toward skill efficacy and behavioral self-control in mainstream public school placements. LD students were analyzed while both viewers and active participants in the social context of academic learning. This approach is in contrast to paradigms where children are asked to report on their interpretations of factors that covary with the occurrence of a personal or situational event. The Social Relations Model was used to gather and analyze data in a round-robin fashion across perceivers and targets. Results indicated that LD students viewed themselves individually as less skilled than they viewed their LD peers as a group. This finding is contrary to data derived with typical populations of children and adults. The Social Relations Model is presented as a useful way to research how individuals with learning disabilities develop social knowledge while engaged with their peers and teachers in a natural learning environment.

Despite their significant academic deficits, children with learning disabilities (LD) often maintain favorable feelings of general self-worth. This study examined whether a positive bias in the evaluation of academic work is associated with such feelings. The Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPP-C; Harter, 1985b) was administered to a sample of 84 third graders (42 with LD, 42 normally achieving). During individual interviews a subset of these children explained why they felt they were doing well or poorly. Responses to the interview and to the individual items of the SPP-C showed that most children with LD and normally achieving (NA) children perceived themselves as doing well academically, based largely on feedback on their performance in the classroom. Results support Renick and Harter's (1988) argument that children with LD recognize their specific skill deficits (e.g., forgetfulness and trouble figuring out problems), but do not perceive themselves as being any less smart than their NA peers. Overall, findings indicate the importance of perceived teacher feedback in maintaining positive feelings of self-worth among children with LD.

Nonacademic self-perceptions (social acceptance, athletic ability, physical appearance and behavioral conduct) of depressed and nondepressed children with and without learning disabilities were compared. The nonacademic subscales of the Self-Perception Profile for Learning Disabled Students, a domain-specific self-perception measure, and the Children's Depression Inventory, a self-report inventory of depressive symptomatology, were administered to students in grade 5 (n=83) and grade 8 (n=88). Results indicated that self-perceived social acceptance demonstrated a significant relationship with depression only for students with learning disabilities. Furthermore, lower self-perception of physical appearance was related to depression for females but not males. Depressed subjects, regardless of gender, reported lower self-perceptions of behavioral conduct and athletic ability. Consistent with previous findings regarding stereotypical self-perceptions, males reported better self-perceptions of athletic ability than females but lower self-perceptions of behavioral conduct. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.

The present study compared the reading comprehension abilities of students with learning disabilities (LD) and those of both their age peers and their reading-level peers. Reading passages included familiar and unfamiliar topics, so as to assess the use of prior knowledge under varying conditions. All passages tested inferential reading ability, since the answers to test questions could be inferred from content, but were not explicitly stated. Subject activation and experimenter activation of prior knowledge were also compared. All groups benefited from experimenter activation of prior knowledge, but these benefits were most noteworthy for subjects with LD, and when passage topics were unfamiliar. The subjects with LD performed very similarly to their reading-level peers, as opposed to their age peers. Thus, the findings shed some light on the nature of learning disabilities. Implications for instruction are explored.