The effects of interest on reading comprehension in children with reading problems, attention problems and typically developing children

This study assessed the effect of levels of interest on reading comprehension for students ages 7-11 with and without mild disabilities. We recruited nonclinical samples of students (16 RD and RP, 16 ADHD and AP, and 16 typically developing) with equivalent I.Q.s and without co-occurring diagnoses. To these students, we administered high and low interest fables. Interest was defined as novelty (e.g., action-oriented verbs) and surprise (e.g., unexpected endings). Those variables that defined interest were manipulated to develop stories with high and low levels. High interest level stories had more action oriented verbs, unfamiliar characters and surprise endings, and low interest level stories had fewer active verbs, more familiar characters and more common endings. Students were assessed for reading comprehension and retell using questions that varied in abstractness (i.e., recall of specifics aspects of the story versus the main idea). Findings for all the students with reading disabilities and attention deficit disorders (relative to typically developing) showed increased comprehension scores in the high interest condition. Both the RP and AP groups did significantly better in the high interest condition on the higher level thinking questions. On the story retell measures, students with AP performed significantly better in the high interest condition for all levels except the first. Differences between the two groups of students with disabilities were seen in condition. Both the RP and AP groups did significantly better in the high interest condition on the higher level thinking questions. On the story retell measures, students with AP performed significantly better in the high interest condition for all levels except the first. Differences between the two groups of students with disabilities were seen in one of the literal and one of the higher level thinking comprehension questions. Further, differences between the disability groups were seen in levels two, three and four of the story retell. The educational implications of the group differences were discussed