Relationship betweeen literacy and behavior

The learning of socially appropriate behavior and the mastery of literacy skills are highly critical to function successfully. Students with emotional disabilities (ED) have difficulty in both areas. Further, research has shown that the pro-social behavior and literacy skills are related. The increased use of strength-based assessments is also a growing area. The current study examined the relationship between pro-social behavior and literacy skills as measured by two developmentally sequenced strength-based assessments, the Language Arts objective Sequence (LOS) and the Behavioral Objective Sequence (BOS), using students with emotional disabilities. The subjects for this study were 102 students from grades K-12 who had been diagnosed with an emotional disability or as a student with challenging behavior. The study also provided psychometric data on the LOS. The results of the current study found significant correlations among the subscales of the LOS and the BOS. Further analyses indicated the strong relationships may be related to the sequential and developmental nature of the instruments. The LOS was found to have good internal consistency and did not demonstrate any gender bias. Significant differences were found for ethnicity on two of the LOS scales, favoring European American females. However, the low number of females suggests the differences may be due to sampling error. The results are discussed with respect to complexity of pro-social behaviors and literacy, the unique characteristics of students with ED and the importance of strength-based assessments.Department of Special EducationThesis (D. Ed.