Profiling Problem Readers:Diagnosis and Prescription
Abstract
Title : Description : Keywords : Author : ----------------------------------------------- PROFILING PROBLEM READERS:Di agnosi sand Prescription Lance M. Gentile Merna McMillan Mostchildrenwhoexperience difficultyinreading aremorethan problem readers; they are youngsters with problems. Theirbackgrounds and day-to-day lives are marked by conflicts withparents, siblings, teachers,orpeers. Often theyhave difficultycooperating withadults and withother childrenas well.Someare disdainful and defiant, while others are totally passive or in-different. Any attempt to remediate a problem reader's“reading pro-blem”withouttakingintoconsiderationhis deeperemotionaldifficulties is unlikely to produce consequential results. Dreikurs(1 954) claimed: Tounderstand achildinhisfunctionsandperfor-mances, one must keep in mind thatman is asocialanimal, a zoon politicon(Aristotle). Since he functionsentirelywithinasocial atmosphere, allhis functionsand performances have social significance. To unders-tand a child requires comprehension ofhis totalper-sonalitywithinhissocialsetting.Itisimpossible to Lance M. Gentile, PhD,is director of the pupil appraisalcenter, Col-lege of Education, North Texas State Universit, Denton, Texas 76203. County, California, Mental Health Services.Merna McMillan, PhD,is director ofmental tl ealth, San Luis Obispo SEPT.198147 ----------------------------------------------- blameanyonefactorin thechild'smakeupforhisbehavior or deficiencies. Many problem readers come from homes where the socialclimateinhibitshealthypsychological-andacademic- development.Someparentsapplystrictdisciplinewhentheirchilddoesnotmakesatisfactoryprogress;othersoverprotecttheirchildren and “sacrifice” everything for them, often atgreatcost to themselves or other familymembers; others reject theiryoungster's efforts in everything, forever anticipating fai I u re. Diagnosis of a child's reading problem often causes parentsto feel guilty;they feeltheyhave not given enough attentiontotheirchild