READING-DISABILITY IN AN AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY SAMPLE

As part of a prospective longitudinal study of a large and representat ive sample of Victorian school-aged children (the Australian Temperame nt Project), we assessed the prevalence of reading problems at the Gra de 2 level. On the basis of scores on the ACER Primary Reading Survey - Level B, we designated 16% of children as reading disabled. We did n ot find the usual preponderance of boys with reading problems. There w as a strong association between reading problems and behavioural malad justment, as rated by parents and teachers, particularly amongst boys. It is likely that this association is responsible for the reported ex cess of boys in clinical samples. Follow-up assessments of the reading -disabled children two years later showed that few children ''recovere d'' to a normal level of reading. Analyses of the reading and spelling errors made by these children confirmed that deficient phonological s kills are particularly characteristic of reading-disabled children. It is suggested that more attention to the teaching of phonetic skills i n the early school years is necessary to diminish the difficulties for these children in learning to read.