Family Risk of Dyslexia Is Continuous: Individual Differences in the Precursors of Reading Skill

• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.7402003
• Publication Date: 2004-01-12T13:48:36Z
• Authors: Margaret J. Snowling; Alison Gallagher; Uta Frith
• Keywords: Language Tests; Developmental Disabilities; 4. Education; 05 social sciences; Neuropsychological Tests; Dyslexia; Cognition; Socioeconomic Factors; Phonetics; Child, Preschool; Humans; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Child; Child Language

The development of 56 children at family risk of dyslexia was followed from the age of 3 years, 9 months to 8 years. In the high‐risk group, 66% had reading disabilities at age 8 years compared with 13% in a control group from similar, middle‐class backgrounds. However, the family risk of dyslexia was continuous, and high‐risk children who did not fulfil criteria for reading impairment at 8 years performed as poorly at age 6 as did high‐risk impaired children on tests of grapheme–phoneme knowledge. The findings are interpreted within an interactive model of reading development in which problems in establishing a phonological pathway in dyslexic families may be compensated early by children who have strong language skills.