There is controversy within the research literature concerning the relative prevalence of reading problems in boys and girls. The authors report findings from very large and very representative samples of Australian students. Data from the New South Wales "Basic Skills Test" (BST) for reading, administered annually to third and fifth…

This study investigated the extent to which children's knowledge about reading disabilities, preoccupation with their own reading disability, and anxiety predicted reading comprehension in fifth and sixth grade children with reading disabilities (N = 85). Participants provided rich and accurate information about reading disabilities and the…

The study examined the demographic distribution of 102 subjects with attention deficits in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised standardization sample. Although neither age nor occupational status were significant, males and female residents of the West were overrepresented. (Author/DB)

Whether boys are more vulnerable than girls to reading disabilities (RD) is controversial. We review studies that were designed to minimize ascertainment bias in the selection of individuals with RD. These include population-based studies that identified children with RD by objective, unbiased methods and studies that examined the gender ratios…

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 27 children (14 girls, 13 boys) who varied in their reading skill levels. Both behavior performance measures recorded during the ERP word classification task and the ERP responses themselves discriminated between children with above-average, average, and below-average reading skills. ERP…

The ability to recognize emotions that were easily identifiable and those that were more difficult to identify was studied in 48 children and 76 children with learning disabilities (ages 9-12). Children of both genders and ability levels were more accurate in identifying expressions of affect from female faces. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Teacher ratings of 94 learning disabled and 241 normal girls, grouped as three age levels, on school emotional and behavior problems revealed that personality problem (e.g., anxiety, withdrawal) was the only factor dimension that differentiated LD from non-LD girls, and these differences were not apparent at every age level. (Author/CL)

Four groups of 7- to 10-year-old girls (N=37), who were either (1) hyperactive, (2) reading disabled, (3) hyperactive and reading disabled, or (4) solely attention disordered, were contrasted with male counterparts on measures of intelligence, achievement, personality, and cognitive style. Among findings were significant sex differences across…

Among conclusions of the review of the literature are that learning-disabled (LD) females have lower IQ's and more severe academic achievement deficits in some aspects of reading and math, but are somewhat better in visual-motor abilities, spelling, and written language mechanics than LD males. (Author/DB)