Students with learning disabilities are more likely to make external attributions for both success and failure than their non-disabled peers. Specificallv, they are less likely to attribute success to ability or internal, controllable, and stable factors and are more likely to attribute success to luck or external, uncontrollable and unstable factors. Students with learning disabilities have lower global self concepts than non-disabled peers. This lowered self-concept was reported as early as grade three, and was found to remain stable through high school. Students with learning disabilities who were neither identified nor given special placement experienced lower academic self-concepts than those who were identified and specifically placed.
Early intervention is critical.
Reading ability was chosen as a criterion for learning disability because eighty-five to ninety percent of school aged children with learning disabilities manifest specific reading or language based disabilities. It is also assumed that an inability to read would make academic success in other academic classes difficult if not impossible. Most teachers are not qualified to teach learning disabled students. Therefore, these students should be grouped outside of the mainstream for academic classes where multisensory and proven teaching techniques can be used. Students should continue in these academic settings until their reading levels are commensurate with their intellectual potential, and attribution retraining should begin as soon as possible.