With the development of mental testing, researchers have identified maladjustment to school as a factor in delinquency, but the reasons behind this relationship have remained obscure. Evidence generally indicates that poor reading achievement is strongly associated with antisocial aggressive behavior and that both conditions share certain psychological manifestations. Children with reading difficulties and delinquents both exhibit abnormal EEG patterns and slowed theta waves which represent developmental lags. Other investigators have focused on genetic factors as the cause of inadequate central nervous system development. Even if reading problems and delinquency are both caused by cerebral dysfunction, ways of mainstreaming persons with these problems still have not been discovered. Several subgroups of delinquents probably exist, including some who have minimal brain damage and others who inherit personality patterns that limit their social and educational progress. According to several studies, delinquents show a lack of abstract linguistic ability and have a concrete conceptual attitude. Students with these characteristics are frequently at a disadvantage when taking standard intelligence tests and cannot acquire reading skills as taught by regular classroom methods. Techniques should be developed to teach children with lower verbal and linguistic abilities and prevent a cycle of frustration which often results in truancy. Curricula could emphasize concrete experiences, realistic vocational preparation, and socialization or should offer alternative methods of learning which rely on audiovisual aids and discussions. Personnel policies in business and industry could be revised so that a high degree of literacy is not a prerequisite for positions in which literacy is not functionally necessary. The talents of children do not require changing. Instead, social values and institutions should be redesigned to accommodate the variety of skills that children possess. Over 80 references are included.