Development & Early Identification of Reading Disability

Christopher Longian, Ph.D.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

The objectives of this multi-study longitudinal project are to identify the domains and ages at which preschool children who will develop reading disabilities (or skilled versus less skilled reading can be identified), and to determine if rate of growth of preliteracy skills during preschool can serve to identify children who will have difficulties learning to read. This study uses structural equation modeling, growth curve modeling, and logistic regression to test alternative models of the causal relations between skills in oral language, phonological processing, and print processing with reading. One longitudinal study follows approximately 1,000 children recruited when they were between the ages of 2- to 5-years for a period of five years, providing data on developmental continuity of skills across the preschool period and into early elementary school. A second longitudinal project intensively examines the development of the preliteracy skills of approximately 300 children during the preschool year and follows these children as they begin elementary school.