Teacher feedback to mentally retarded and nonretarded children.

In an effort to understand earlier findings on helplessness of retarded children, we observed feedback given during reading training to retarded and nonretarded children of third- to fourth-grade reading ability. The helplessness-inducing pattern of feedback identified in previous research on learned children were more likely to receive negative feedback than were nonretarded children. The findings suggest that retarded children's susceptibility to helplessness may result partly from the feedback they receive in school.