Motivating students with learning disabilities: The role of parents.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the motivational practices of parents whose children have learning disabilities. A group of 123 parents responded to the Parental Motivational Practices Scale (Gottfried, Gottfried, & Fleming, 1994b) and 105 students, 38 with learning disabilities (LD) and 67 without learning disabilities (NLD), in grades 4 through 8, responded to the Student Attitude Measure (Wick, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c) and the Children\u27s Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Gottfried, 1986a). The results indicate that mothers of LD students use more extrinsic practices than do mothers of NLD students. Interestingly, their use of extrinsic practices does not seem to hinder their use of intrinsic practices, as both groups of mothers use significantly more intrinsic practices than extrinsic practices. Moreover, their overall use of intrinsic practices are very similar. The LD students appear to have a lower sense of control over their performance and lower academic intrinsic motivation than do NLD students. The importance of parent-child relationships in maximizing motivation in students with learning disabilities is highlighted. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1997 .R54. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0330. Adviser: Noel Williams. Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1998