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READING SELF-CONCEPT OF CHILDREN WITH DYSLEXIA: DO THEY DIFFER FROM THEIR PEERS? Manuel Soriano, Carmen Rodríguez & Emilia Soriano Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology. University of Valencia E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Introduction. Whereas considerable research attention has been devoted to the cognitive consequences of reading difficulties, less attention has focused on the motivational spinoffs. More recently, however, motivational beliefs have been included in expanded cognitive models of learning. Children with reading disabilities hold more negative self-concepts, feel more helpless, display less emotional self-regulation, and avoid reading activities. Objectives. This research aimed at exploring reading self-concept of pupils with dyslexia, and to investigate whether they differ from their peers. Method. A sample of forty children participated in this study: 20 with developmental dyslexia (M: 11.26; SD: 1.83) and 20 average readers (M=11.50; SD: 1.61) matched in chronological age and gender. Reading self-Concept Scale (Chapman & Tummer, 1995) was used. This scale consists of 30 items representing three related aspects of reading self-concept: perceptions of competence in reading (Cronbach´s α=.73), perceptions of difficulty with reading (Cronbach´s α=.80) and attitudes towards reading (Cronbach´s α=.74) and total scale (Cronbach´s α=.87). Results. Results show that developmental dyslexics reported more negative self-perceptions on all three subscales. Conclusions. Thus, children with dyslexia viewed themselves as less competent in reading, having more difficult with reading, and liking reading less than their peers. Thus, developmental dyslexic children could have a decreased motivation to engage in reading activities. These results are consistent with other findings in the area of reading motivation. Key words: reading self-concept, dyslexia, motivation Conceptual Framework The importance of student engagement with school is recognized by educators, as is the observation that far too many students are bored, unmotivated, and uninvolved, that is, disengaged from the academic and social aspects of school life. More than 20 years ago, researchers remarked that although attendance at high school was compulsory, engagement could not be legislated (Mosher &MacGowan, 1985). One constant across the myriad conceptualizations of engagement is that it is multidimensional. In the literature review of the literature developed by Jimerson, Campos, & Greif (2003) identified three dimensions of school engagement: a) the affective dimension includes students´ feelings about the school, teachers, and/or peers (e.g. positive feelings towards teachers and other students); b) the behavioral dimension includes students´ observable actions or performance, such as participation in extracurricular activities (e.g. sports), completion of homework, as well as grades, grade point averages, and scores on achievement tests; c) the cognitive dimension includes students´ perceptions and beliefs related to the self, school, teachers, and other students (e.g. selfefficacy, motivation, perceiving that teachers or peers care, aspirations, expectations). Yet because reading is an effortful activity that children often can choose to do or not to do, it also requires motivation. In reading literature, much of the work relevant to readers’ motivation has been framed in terms of attitudes toward reading. Reading attitudes typically are defined as readers’ affect toward reading (McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth, 1995). The motivational consequences of reading attitudes are that children with more positive attitudes are more motivated to read. The approach is grounded in two theoretical positions, the engagement perspective and achievement motivation theory. The engagement perspective on reading integrates cognitive, motivational, and social aspects of reading (Baker, Afflerbach, & Reinking, 1996; Guthrie & Alvermann, 1999). As Baker et al. (1996) put it, “the engagement perspective views readers as motivated, strategic, knowledgeable, and socially interactive” (p. xv). Engaged readers are motivated to read for different purposes, utilize knowledge gained from previous experience to generate new understandings, and participate in meaningful social interactions around reading. In conceptualizing reading motivation, we adapted constructs defined and developed by researchers in the achievement motivation field. Currently, many motivation theorists propose that individuals’ competence and efficacy beliefs, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and purposes for achievement play a crucial role in their decisions about which activities to do, how long to do them, and how much effort to put into them (Bandura, 1997, 2006; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998). Motivated readers thus will engage more in reading (Oldfather & Wigfield, 1996) and will have positive attitudes toward reading (McKenna et al., 1995). Guthrie & Wigfield (1999), who defined reading motivation as "the individual's goals and beliefs regarding reading" (p. 199), claimed that what influences reading engagement is different from what influences engagement in other fields. It must be noted that Wigfield and his associates' Reading Motivation Theory includes a general dimension that similar motivational factors such as beliefs, values and goals also influence reading engagement. Reading Self-Concept and Self-Efficacy Self-concepts of ability are more or less domain-specific self-perceptions that students develop as a result of their experiences in different (school) subjects or domains. These experiences are largely determined by the opinions of significant others, concrete feedback, and causal attributions. Most prior research viewed the verbal self-concept as being onedimensional, whereas others suggested the differentiation of subcomponents. Accordingly, the concept of one’s reading ability may be one such subcomponent. In line with this assumption, Chapman and Tunmer (1995) developed the Reading Self-Concept Scale for elementary students. Reading self-efficacy refers to the extent of a person’s expectation to perform well on a reading task. Bandura (1997, 2006) differentiated between outcome and self-efficacy expectations. An outcome expectation is defined as the subjective belief that a given behavior will in fact result in a certain outcome, whereas self-efficacy beliefs refer to the expectation of being able to execute that behavior. In contrast to academic self-concepts, self-efficacy beliefs are relatively independent of both social and dimensional comparison processes. However, they depend more strongly on past experiences with similar tasks. Self- perception is a broad construct; thus, recent research has focused on self-perception and attitudes towards reading (Baker & Scher, 2002; Chapman & Tunmer, 1995). In their research, Chapman and Tunmer (1995) differentiate between three subcomponents of reading self-concept: perceptions of competence in reading, perceptions of difficulty with reading, and attitudes towards reading. They have found that in the early grades, perceptions of difficulty are related to reading ability. When children perceive that they have the ability to accomplish a particular task, they tend to perform at higher levels and be motivated to select increasingly challenging tasks (Dweck, 1999; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; Jacobs, Lanza, Osgood, Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; Skinner, Zimmer-Gembeck & Connell, 1998). Thus, the way in which children appraise their reading capabilities is expected to relate to motivational aspects, such as interest and persistence in reading, which in turn relates to their reading achievement (Baker & Scher, 2002; Chapman & Tunmer, 1995; 2003; Jacobs et al., 2002). Children´s experiences in school can have a powerful influence on their selfperceptions. Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance, and the effect this perception has on the on-going and future conduct of the activity (Bandura, 2006). Whereby, self-perception could motivate or inhibit learning of any student. In reading, self-perceptions can impact upon an individual orientation toward the process itself. That is, how an individual feels about herself or himself as a reader could clearly influence whether reading would be sought or avoided, the amount of effort that would occur during reading, and how persistently comprehension would be pursued (Henk & Melnick, 1995). Some studies have found that children with developmental dyslexia (DD) have lower self-perceptions of competence as compared to children without DD (Tabassam & Grainger, 2002). Objectives This research aimed at exploring reading self-concept of pupils with dyslexia, and to investigate whether they differ from their peers. Method Participants A sample of forty children participated in this study: 20 with developmental dyslexia (M: 11.26; SD: 1.83) and 20 average readers (M=11.50; SD: 1.61) matched in chronological age and gender. The presence of developmental dyslexia (DD) was determined by using an adaptation of the multifaceted approach developed by Pereira-Laird, Deane and Bunnell (1999). The requirements followed in the assessment were: (a) poor academic performance in reading using a teacher´s rating report, and average achievement in other academic areas (e.g. arithmetic); (b) scores of 80 or higher on an intelligence test (Cattell & Cattell, 1950/1989), in order to exclude students with intellectual deficits; (c) no evidence or history of neurological damage, environmental disadvantage, emotional disturbance, hearing and vision abnormalities, or any other major handicapping condition, in accordance with the conventional exclusion criteria for the learning disabilities (LD) field; (d) the achievement criteria in reading adopted in this study have been commonly used in the LD literature. Specifically, developmental dyslexia (DD) was determined by using a score on the subtest on word reading from the standardized Reading Test PROLEC-R (Cuetos, Ramos, Ruano y Arribas, 2007) corresponding to the 25th percentile or less. Measures The Reading Self-Concept Scale (Chapman & Tunmer,1995) was used to measure children’s ratings of their reading self-concept. For this measure, children are asked to respond to each question on a 5-point scale that ranges from 1 (No, never) to 5 (Yes, always).1 The instrument measures three aspects of reading self-concept and yields three subscales: competence in reading (e.g., ‘Do you think you read well?’), perceptions of ease with reading (e.g., ‘Do you make lots of mistakes in reading?’), and attitudes toward reading (e.g., ‘Is it fun for you to read books?’). This instrument contains 30 items, 10 items per subscale. Our data show adequate Cronbach´s α for perceptions of competence in reading (Cronbach´s α=.73), perceptions of difficulty with reading (Cronbach´s α=.80) and attitudes towards reading (Cronbach´s α=.74) and total scale (Cronbach´s α=.87). Results The results obtained from comparing the two groups of children with and without developmental dyslexia (see figure 1) revealed significant differences in perceptions of competence, F (1, 39) = 12.237, p < .001, η² = .24, perceptions of difficulty with reading, F(1, 39) = 23.562, p < .000, η² = .38, attitudes towards reading, F(1, 39) = 6.381, p < .016, η² = .14, and in the total scale, F(1, 39) = 21.071, p < .000, η² = .35, with large size effect sizes in the majority of variables. In summary, results show that developmental dyslexics reported more negative self-perceptions on all three subscales. Figure 1.- Mean on Reading self-Concept Subscales 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Competence Attitudes D. Dyslexia Difficulty Average Readers Self-concept Total Conclusions Our results show that children with dyslexia viewed themselves as less competent in reading, having more difficult with reading, and liking reading less than their peers. Thus, children with DD could become poorly motivated to read and have poorer attitudes toward reading because of their repeated failure to acquire reading skills. Poor motivation is important because of its link to reading practice. Thus, developmental dyslexic children could have a decreased motivation to engage in reading activities. Stanovich (1986) hypothesized that early but consistent reading failure initiates “a causal chain of escalating negative side effects” (pp. 364). One such negative Mathew effect should be decreased motivation, which, in turn, leads children to avoid reading practice. This avoidance results in a cascade of “poor-get-poorer” effects, such that these children display increasingly generalized cognitive, motivational, and behavioral deficits. We claim, however, that these difficulties are far from insurmountable. To overcome both skill deficiencies in reading and the negative reading and achievement related selfperceptions that develop in response to reading difficulties, a comprehensive approach to remediation is required. In this regard, we maintain that substantial scientific research indicates that attention to the development of word-level skills and strategies is essential. In addition, research on the efficacy of the attribution retraining strategies provides promising methods for teachers to overcome children´s negative self-system beliefs, since self-perceptions are not exclusively a stable characteristic of a student. It suggests that if we modify and design curricula, lessons, and schools in a different way, we can improve student´s competence feelings to improve their reading achievement, and to engage them in reading activities (Chapman & Tunmer, 2003). Bibliographical References Baker, L., & Scher, D. (2002). 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