CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE IS PRESENTED WHICH SUGGESTS THE GENERAL HYPOTHESIS THAT SPECIFIC READING DISABILITIES ARE RELATED TO SYMPTOMATIC EXPRESSIONS OF MORE CENTRAL EMOTIONAL DISORDERS. FACTORS OF READING DYSFUNCTION APPEAR AS CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH FACTORS OF OTHER BEHAVIORAL-EMOTIONAL SYMPTOMS IN CHILDREN. INTERCORRELATION MATRICES OF READING RELATED SKILLS AND PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS WERE FACTOR ANALYZED SEPARATELY AND YIELDED FOUR PSYCHIATRIC AND SEVEN READING DEFICIENCY FACTORS. AN ANALYSIS OF THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN SETS OF FACTORS SUGGESTED THAT THERE IS SIGNIFICANT COMMONALITY ACROSS SYMPTOM DOMAINS TO CONFIRM PREDICTIONS MADE IN THIS AREA. FACTOR SETS SHOWING SIGNIFICANT CORRELATIONS ARE INTERPRETED AND DISCUSSED. THE SUBJECTS WERE 50 CHILDREN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 9 AND 14 YEARS WHO HAD BEEN REFERRED TO THE CHILDREN'S PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, FOR AN EVALUATION OF THEIR EMOTIONAL DISORDERS. EACH CHILD UNDERWENT EXTENSIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING AND PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION IN ADDITION TO READING ASSESSMENT. THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE "READING RESEARCH QUARTERLY," VOLUME 2, NUMBER 3, SPRING 1967. (AUTHOR)