Each basis of comparison has its advantages and disadvantages. The retained student should be compared to age-level norms as reading is less tied to specific academic instruction than, say, arithmetic. Much of learning is self-teaching. The instructor in the classroom can only present a brief exposure to material. A child's ability to learn in the classroom environment depends on the ability to register what the teacher is presenting and integrate that information into what is needed in the reading development process.
Emotional problems can interfere with learning.
Often, emotional problems coexist with learning disabilities. It is important to discriminate whether the emotions cause the impairment in learning, are caused by the learning impairment, or are present independent of the reading impairment. To make this discrimination, a careful history and assessment is needed to document the chronology of problems, the nature of the problems, and the situations under which the difficulties are observed. Frequently the learning disabled child will be much happier in the summer when not in school. Stomachaches and headaches may occur only on school days.