Does Passive Learning Account for Disabled Readers' Comprehension Deficits in Ordinary Reading Situations?

Abstract

Thirty-two LD and 32 average elementary students, matched by grade, read under three conditions: a classroom group condition, an individual (child and examiner) condition, and an individual restatement condition, requiring subjects to summarize, or restate, the contents of each paragraph during passage reading. Overall results of comprehension tests failed to confirm predicted differential effects of conditions on attentional control. The performance pattern across conditions was the same for both reader groups, although LD students' comprehension was considerably lower than that of their average peers. The condition requiring restatements resulted in superior performance for both reader groups suggesting that average as well as LD readers did not always process the texts actively under the group and individual reading conditions.

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