TOPLINE:

Children in kindergarten with less knowledge of letters, weak awareness of sounds of consonants, or deficits in naming were at increased odds of being at risk for dyslexia in later grades.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a prospective longitudinal cohort study to assess whether prereading measures in kindergarten predicted the risk for early- and late-emerging dyslexia.
• They included 515 children who spoke Hebrew (mean age, 5.9 years; 55.3% girls) from multiple kindergartens and public elementary schools in northern Israel between May 2019 and June 2023.
• Trained staff gave each child four short tests: identifying consonant sounds (phonological awareness); rapidly naming objects and colors (rapid automatized naming); identifying and naming Hebrew letters (letter knowledge); and working with adjectives, verbs, and plurals (morphological awareness).
• Children completed timed word reading fluency tests in grades 1 and 4. Scoring at or below the 10th percentile classified them as at risk for dyslexia.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall, 9.3% of children scored at or below the 10th percentile for word reading fluency in grade 1, and 9.9% did so in grade 4. Children at risk for dyslexia in grade 1 had 4.98-fold increased odds of being at risk in grade 4 (P < .001).
• Children with low knowledge of letters in kindergarten had 4.75-fold increased odds of having the risk for dyslexia in grade 1, and those with low awareness of consonant sounds had 4.17-fold increased odds (P < .001 for both).
• After accounting for the risk in grade 1, kindergarten deficits in letter knowledge, weaker morphological awareness, and slower naming speed were associated with 3.57-, 2.56-, and 2.39-fold increased odds of having the risk for dyslexia in grade 4, respectively (P < .05 for all).
• Lower socioeconomic status was associated with an increased risk for dyslexia in both grades 1 and 4 (P < .01 for both).

IN PRACTICE:

“Pediatricians, as primary healthcare practitioners, are well positioned to support early identification and intervention, shifting dyslexia care from reactive to preventive and reducing long-term educational and psychosocial consequences,” the researchers of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Rotem Yinon, PhD, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. It was published online on March 24 in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS: 

Researchers did not assess the feasibility of these screenings in routine pediatric clinics. Some children may have been misclassified owing to the different paces of developing language skills. The study did not account for home literacy or quality of instruction.

DISCLOSURES:

The study received support from the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.