A Comparison of Learning Disabled Adolescents with Normal Learners on an Anaphoric Pronominal Reference Task

Abstract

This study investigated whether differences exist between learning disabled and nonhandicapped adolescents in their comprehension of pronoun-antecedent relationships. A pronoun reference task was administered to learning disabled, nonacademic, and academic 10th and 11th graders in a middle-class, suburban high school. There were significant differences between the performance of the LD and the nonhandicapped groups, but no differences were found between the low and average nondisabled groups. Results indicated that LD students may have specific comprehension difficulties that are related to their inattention to integrative cues in text.