AbstractsPsychology

Given the significance of healthy socioemotional functioning for positive developmental and educational outcomes, identifying relationships between children’s academic achievement and associated social skills deficits is critical. While mounting evidence describes the neuropsychological and academic profiles associated with three specific subtypes of learning disabilities, the degree of socioemotional competence associated with each subtype is less clear. This study utilizes data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten (ECLS-K) to examine socioemotional competence, as defined by social skill ratings, among kindergarten through fifth grade students with learning difficulties who demonstrate academic profiles indicative of underlying academic subtypes. The effect of gender and correlated influences of socioeconomic status and home environment characteristics, including parent-child communication and home learning activities, were examined. Partial support was obtained for the first hypothesis which found differences among initial social skill ratings by teachers for kindergartners identified as having specific subtypes of learning difficulties by the third or fifth grade, compared to children without learning difficulties. Children later identified as having difficulties in reading and math consistently received the lowest teacher ratings of social skills in kindergarten while children with reading iii difficulties or math difficulties received less consistent ratings depending on the model. No support was found for the second hypothesis in that there were no differences among the growth trajectories of children’s social skills from kindergarten through the fifth grade for children later identified as having different subtypes of learning difficulties. This research clarifies and extends current knowledge and provides direction for future intervention and research efforts.