UC Riverside

Students with reading difficulties frequently struggle succeeding in middle school courses due to poor early reading and language skills. Research suggests that students with reading difficulties and comorbid behavioral concerns may have difficulties making appropriate gains when exposed to academic instruction. This study examined the extent to which social/emotional/behavioral (SEB) and academic factors impact vocabulary intervention gains for middle school students with reading disabilities. Eighty-five middle school students were assessed using the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS; Kilgus & von der Embse, 2014), Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement (WJ IV ACH; Schrank, Mather, & McGrew, 2014), and a researcher-developed multiple-choice vocabulary measure while completing an intensive vocabulary intervention. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and stepwise regression were utilized to analyze the relations among behavior problems, reading achievement, and vocabulary intervention gains. In this study, it was found that SEB difficulties did not significantly impact vocabulary gains. It is envisioned that future research will be more successful in explaining these complicated relations.