Feeling that the key problem in working with delinquent adolescents is to help them bring their antisocial behaviors under control and establish more socially acceptable behaviors, the author points out that an important step is to change the pupil' attitudes about reading, test-taking, schools, and teachers. Suggested methods of motivation are knowledge of test results, rewards, social praise, and recognition. Recommended are programs of reading paperback books with an emphasis on book reports, adult modeling of reading behavior for delinquent adolescents disabled in reading, diagnostic teaching directed in small steps and coordinated with a concrete token system, and programs teaching visual-perceptual strategy to improve word recognition skills. References are included. (AW)