Classroom behavior of children and adolescents with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis

Meta-analysis was used to review the results of 25 studies that compared the class-room behavior of children and adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) to children without learning disabilities. The data were analyzed from several different method-ological perspectives, Results showed that both methodologically strong and weak studies demonstrated significant behavioral deficits of children with learning dis-abilities compared to their nondisabled peers in each of five overall areas: on-task behavior, off-task behavior, conduct disorders, distractibility, and shy/withdrawn behavior. Both observational and teacher rating data demonstrated these differences, Effect sizes for both groups of studies seemed to cluster around 1 standard devia-tion, suggesting noticeable and educationally significant impairment in the behavior of children with disabilities. Analysis of grade-level effect sizes suggests some ex-planation for the large number of referrals often witnessed during the elementary school years. Educational implications of these behavioral differences in terms of implications for mainstreaming are discussed, Over the last several years, researchers studying students with learning dis-abilities (LD) have begun to identify defi-cits in the classroom behavior of these children and adolescents (Bender, 1986