Forty-two brain injured boys and 42 non brain injured boys (aged 11-6 to 12-6) were tested to determine the effects of increasing amounts of visual and auditory distraction on reading performance. The Stanford Achievement Reading Comprehension Test was administered with three degrees of distraction. The visual distraction consisted of either very few items per page, a normal amount of items, or pages with a superimposed jigsaw puzzle design; the auditory distraction was supplied by a tape recording of school sounds. Distractions did not affect the reading performance of either group, did not affect the brain injured any more than the normal, and there was no trend for comprehension to decrease concomitantly under combined increases of visual and auditory distractions. The high dual distraction negatively affected the non brain injured group more than the brain injured group. The conclusion was that the basic assumptions of teaching materials and methodology for brain injured children should be reevaluated. (Author/JM)