EMOTION AND COGNITION IN STUDENTS WHO STRUGGLE TO READ: NEW INSIGHTS AND IDEAS

As educators, we need to change the way we think about cognition and emotion, especially for children who struggle to read. Emotion and cognition work in parallel in subtle and powerful ways. In this article, we explore the relationship between emotion and cognition in a group of children with reading disabilities in grades five through nine. We investigate their emotional reactions to reading and the influence of emotions on their cognition, mood, and self-schemas.

We present our results in themes that arose from our conversations with the students and their teachers. From our themes, we designed a Checklist of Emotional Distress Related to Reading that teachers and parents can use to determine the impact of emotions on the children in their lives. We present suggestions at the end that teachers and others can use to better understand and assist children identified by the checklist.