A longitudinal study of reading skills among very-low-birthweight children: is there a catch-up?

OBJECTIVE To examine the development of reading skills among very-low-birthweight (VLBW) children and to what extent reading difficulties at 9 years of age persist unchanged, are attenuated, or are enhanced at 15 years of age. METHODS Fifty-six VLBW and 52 normal birthweight (NBW) children were assessed on word decoding, word recognition, and reading comprehension at 9 and 15 years of age. RESULTS VLBW children showed deficits in reading skill at 9 years of age, while most differences obtained at 15 years of age did not reach significance. VLBW children improved their reading comprehension between 9 and 15 years of age more than NBW children, and when controlling for individual differences in IQ, VLBW children improved both their reading comprehension and word-recognition skill. CONCLUSION The results suggest that VLBW children display positive changes over time in reading skills.