Children with reading difficulties: a six year follow-up from early primary school to secondary school

Diana Smart^ab, Margot Prior^a, Ann Sanson^ab and Frank Oberklaid^c
aDepartment of Psychology, University of Melbourne, ^bAustralian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne, ^cCentre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville

Abstract
This paper reports on the stability of learning difficulties from 7-8 to 13-14 years of age, and the factors associated with recovery vs. persistence, among children from the Australian Temperament Project, a community-based longitudinal study. Children identified as having reading difficulties (RD) at 7-8 years were re-assessed at 13-14 years of age using school achievement and intelligence tests. Almost half of the children with RDs at 7-8 years had reading difficulties at 13-14 years, almost two-thirds had spelling difficulties and a majority had arithmetic difficulties. When achievement over all three areas was considered, more than 80 per cent of early RD children had a learning difficulty of some kind. The contributions of intelligence, initial severity of reading problems, early externalising behaviour problems (BPs) and family factors, to the persistence of learning difficulties were investigated. For boys, intelligence and presence of early BPs contributed to the persistence of reading difficulties; spelling difficulties were related to these two factors and to initial severity and family SES, while arithmetic difficulties were related to intelligence, early BPs and family SES. However, none of these factors differentiated recovered and persistently RD girls. A risk index developed from these factors indicated that as the number of risks increased, so did the incidence of learning difficulties among both boys and girls.