IS THERE AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SEASON OF BIRTH AND READING-DISABILITY

Reported associations between season of birth and reading failure sugg est medical causation and prevention. The relationship between season of birth and two measures of reading outcome in two cohorts of childre n (n(1) = 2411 and n(2) = 1972) was studied using chi(2) tests. None w as significant. Logistic regression was used to investigate the joint associations of gender, age at school entrance, and season of birth wi th reading outcome. A significant interaction between reading failure and age category (overage at school entrance vs correct age) by season of birth was observed. It was shown that this significant interaction was probably caused by kindergarten entrance cutoff birth dates. Alth ough 67.8% of all overage children had summer births, only 15.3% faile d in reading, which is not statistically different from the percentage of summer-born, correct-age low readers (13.6%). Results suggest that reported associations may be attributed to selective samples rather t han the total population of school children who experience reading fai lure.