[Long-term course of dyslexia beyond the school years: catamnesis from pediatric psychiatric ambulatory care].

In our follow-up study 12 years after index admission we were able to examine 59 out of 115 male patients who had been diagnosed in our department as dyslexic (mean age: 10.1 years). Spelling skills at follow-up were more than one standard deviation below the norm for the subjects' age (T-value on the RT of only 24). About half of our patients had participated in a specific spelling remediation program lasting more than 6 months, but at follow-up no effect of therapy could be demonstrated. The patients with the higher IQs regressed in spelling less than those with the lower IQs. We assume that the effects of remediation programs do not survive therapy and school for long because later on good spelling is no longer either required or encouraged. Our patients were severely impaired in their school career: Although their average IQ was 112 only 6 out of 59 had completed a college-preparatory program (Abitur), all of them from middle-class families with well-educated parents. Our patients chose occupations corresponding to the type of high school diploma they had, often those requiring practical skills rather than reading or spelling skills. Patients who had completed no more than the nine obligatory years at school were less content with their work than expected. Emotional disorders during the past 6 months were no more frequent than expected. In a self-report about delinquency there was no difference compared to a random sample.