Is preschool language impairment a risk factor for dyslexia in adolescence?

The literacy skills of 56 school leavers from the Bishop and Edmundson (198 7) cohort of preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI) were asse ssed at 15 years. The SLI group performed worse on tests of reading, spelli ng, and reading comprehension than age-matched controls and the literacy ou tcomes were particularly poor for those with Performance IQ less than 100. The rate of specific reading retardation in the SLI group had increased bet ween the ages of 8 1/2 and 15 years and there had been a substantial drop i n reading accuracy, relative to age. However, over 35 % had reading skills within the normal range and those who had had isolated impairments of expre ssive phonology had a particularly good outcome, Our findings highlight the limitations of discrepancy definitions of dyslexia that do not take accoun t of the changing demands of reading over time. We argue that children's ph onological difficulties place them at risk of literacy failure at the outse t of reading and that later, impairments of other language skills compromis e development to adult levels of fluency.