Academic Functioning
- There are longitudinal studies reported by the National Reading Panel (2000) indicating that more than 17.5% of the nation’s children, which is approximately 10 million students, encounter reading problems in the crucial first three years of their schooling.
- Reading is vital to the success of the students when they first enter the education system. It is the driving force of all academic achievement. If a student struggles with the ability to read, then success rates decrease for the student. They will have difficulty in all academic areas. Other studies have shown that approximately 75% of students identified with reading problems in the third grade continue to have severe reading disabilities in the ninth grade (Sadler & Sugai, 2009).
- Children who perform poorly academically, tend to engage in work avoidance, non-completion of class and homework assignments. This may be due to not being able to comprehend the curriculum being presented to them.