Discriminating between attitudes expressed by normal and disabled readers

The Survey of Reading Attitudes was administered to 84 normal and 116 disabled readers from the intermediate grades, and a discriminate function analysis was performed on their scores for the eight dimensions of reading attitudes measured by the Survey. The findings indicate that Expressed Reading Difficulty, Reading as Enjoyment, and Reading Group are the three variables that discriminate between these two groups. In comparison with normal readers, disabled readers are more likely to feel negatively about their reading group, less likely to see themselves as pursuing reading for its intrinsic value, and more likely to perceive of themselves as having difficulty with reading. However, the extent to which these findings can be generalized beyond the present sample of white Appalachian students must be established through future research.