Perception of the problems of poor readers and spellers by the parents - Pygmalion in the living room?

The reading and spelling development of 1800 children from grade 2 to 4 in Vienna and Lower Austria was investigated longitudinally over a school year . Teacher and parent judgements of the reading and spelling achievement was compared with test results. The parents were also interviewed by questionn aire about the home Work situation, the reading behavior of the children an d the possibilities to help the children outside school. A moderate concord ance was found between parent and teacher judgements of the achievement lev els and the results of readings and spelling tests. According to a structur al equation model the judge-ment of the parents was only influenced by the judgements of the teachers and not by the achievement levels indicated in t he test results. The comparison of children with different achievement leve ls, where the parents either assumed that the children had reading and spel l-ing difficulties or not, showed that children with difficulties in the ey es of the parents had motivation problems in the homework situation and wit h reading. Despite the increased practice with the parents and the higher f requency of professional help for these children their progress in reading and spelling during the school year was less than that of other children. T his reminds us to be careful in counseling parents of children with reading and spelling difficulties. It emphasizes the danger, that some parents exe rt to much pressure when they become aware of the reading and spelling diff iculties of their children. A detailed analysis of the handling of academic achievement problems in the family seems indicated and this should also be stressed in the further education of teachers.