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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Reading disability; Self-perception;

Abstract

It has been noted that emotional factors are an integral part of a child's success in learning to read. Research indicates that one of the most important personality factors is self-concept. Because the disabled reader has met with repeated failures his self-concept appears to be significantly affected. However, the fact that each person's self-concept is private, personal, and not directly observable makes it difficult to measure. A complication in self-concept measurement is that there have been almost as many measuring devices as there have been studies. Two types of self-concept measures are discussed in the review of literature. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between self-concept and reading levels of disabled readers. Two questions were specifically investigated. Those questions were:

1. What is the relationship, for the disabled reader, between his/her functional reading level and self-concept as assessed with a factor specific measure of self-concept?

2. What is the relationship, for the disabled reader, between his/her degree of disability and self-concept as assessed with a factor specific measure of self-concept?

To answer the questions, 19 disabled readers from the University of Northern Iowa Reading Clinic were administered the Self-Concept as a Learner Scale. An !RI was given to assess the subjects' functional reading levels. To determine the degree of disability an index of disability was calculated by subtracting the subject 1 s actual grade placement from the instructional reading grade equivalent. A Pearson Product-Moment Coefficient of Correlation and at test statistic were used. No significant correlation was found between functional reading level and self-concept for these disabled readers. A significant positive relationship was found between SCALS Problem-Solving and the degree of disability for these disabled readers. No significant correlation was found between any of the other self-concept measures and the degree of disability for these disabled readers. This study may have implications for further research with a larger sample to provide more information concerning the relationship between reading levels and self-concept of disabled readers.

Year of Submission

1979

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor

Catherine Hatcher

Second Advisor

Harley E. Erickson

Third Advisor

Max Hosier

Comments

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Date Original

1979

Object Description

1 PDF file (77 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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