Poor reading and anxiety (PRAX): building a theory and practice

ABSTRACT Clinicians, teachers, and researchers have long suspected that there may be some kind of association between poor reading and emotional health. However, for many years, studies of this association were generally sporadic and poor in quality. This article outlines how – over the last 5 years or so – national and international associates of the PRAX (poor reading and anxiety) research group have made significant progress in our understanding of whether there is a genuine association between poor reading and emotional problems, what type of emotional problem is most closely related to poor reading, how this problem can be detected by appropriate assessment, and how it might be treated effectively. It also describes how these gains in understanding have informed an evidence-based theory for why children with poor reading are at risk for emotional problems.