Goal Setting and Reactions to Success and Failure in Children with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The mixed experiences of children with learning disabilities (LD) — success in some tasks and failure in areas of deficit — should result in greater variability in their goal setting and in reactions to success and failure. A group of 8- to 11-year-old boys with LD was compared with a control group on the Rotter level-of-aspiration task as well as under conditions of experimentally induced failure and success. The children diagnosed as having a learning disability were significantly more variable in goal-setting patterns and thus less systematic in their reactions to their previous performance in the task. A second hypothesis, that the LD child will respond less appropriately to experimentally induced experiences of success and failure than the normal learner, is not supported. LD children showed decreased variability of performance during the success-induced condition, as did the control group. Findings suggest positive feedback might help LD children become more systematic in setting their aspirations relative to performance.