LITERACY AND BEHAVIOUR Behavioural/attentional problems and literacy learning difficulties in children from non-English language/cultural backgrounds JOHN EVERATT, ABIR AL-SHARHAN, YOUSUF AL-AZMI, NASSER AL-MENAYE and GAD ELBEHERI This article reports the findings of studies of the rela- tionship between off-task behaviours and measures of educational achievement. The work focused on children from an Arabic-speaking/cultural background rarely studied in the literature. The first study involved chil- dren within a mainstream school context and found that measures of literacy and mathematics were related to scores on questionnaires designed to assess poor levels of attention and high levels of hyperactivity/impulsivity. The second study focused on intervention work in a special school for children with learning disabilities (LD). The data indicated that interventions designed to reduce off-task behaviours while targeting spelling improvements showed good gains in learning. Overall, the findings are consistent with negative relationships between learning and behaviour problems that may be reduced by combined education-behavioural interven- tion methods. Key words: Arabic-background children, learning dis- abilities, educational achievement, off-task behavioural problems, combined interventions. Introduction The focus of the present work is on education-based diffi- culties experienced by children during schooling. In the context where this work was performed, the term learning disability (LD) describes those with significant levels of these difficulties. LD has been seen as a difficulty in the acquisition of literacy and/or mathematical skills that is inconsistent with the child’s general ability or skills in other areas (see discussion in Elbeheri and Everatt, 2009). Although literacy/mathematics difficulties are the primary focus of much of the work on LD, it may lead also to problems with academic endeavours in general, which can lead to low qualifications and poor employment opportuni- ties, and such problems are often related to negative psychosocial consequences. For example, LD has been found to be associated with a higher than expected preva- lence of behavioural, emotional and social problems (McConaughy et al., 1994; Mckinney, 1989; Michaels and Lewandowski, 1990; Swanson and Malone, 1992). Students with learning disability may be more likely to suffer emotional disorders, such as depression, anxiety and lower self-esteem, than their peers (Huntington and Bender, 1993; Livingstone, 1990; Maughan, 1994). Findings also argue for increased evidence of attentional and behavioural problems among children with learning disability (Cantwell and Baker, 1991; Hinshaw, 1994; Stevenson et al., 1993). Maughan (1994) has proposed that the experiences of failure and frustration at school of a child with learning disability provide a potential link with the development of problem behaviour and that there is a reasonable amount of evidence in the literature for an association between reading problems and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in both clinic and epidemiological samples (Barkley, 2006; Hinshaw, 1994). Miles (2004) believes that if a child overcomes his or her learning difficulties early in school, then this will increase confidence, allowing the indi- vidual to cope better with pressures in later life. However, a child who does not overcome his or her disability will ex- perience higher stress levels, which can undermine their motivation and may cause consequences for the child’s edu- cational development and make educational interventions harder to implement and less successful (see also discus- sions of early intervention effects in Torgesen, 2005). This present work aimed to investigate such relationships between behaviours which can reduce task completion (off- task attentional/behavioural problems) and difficulties in learning. The work targeted a population different from those typically reported in the literature. The literature has focused mainly on individuals from English-speaking or western cultural backgrounds, whereas the present research focused on children within an Arabic language/societal context. Ethnic identity and differences between cultures/ countries can influence perceptions about educational achievement (Hufton et al., 2002; Nasser and Birenbaum, 2005; Scholz et al., 2002). Given that perceptions of the © 2011 The Authors. Support for Learning © 2011 NASEN. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, MA 02148, USA.