[Learning to read and write in compulsory education: a longitudinal study of the incidence and stability of reading and writing difficulties in a Vienna school district].

In a longitudinal study, the development of reading and spelling skills was analyzed in about 500 Viennese school children from first through eighth grade. Performance in reading and spelling was tested at least once a year through grade four and then again at the end of eighth grade using standardized reading and spelling tests. The differences among the children in reading and spelling skills were found to be very stabile over time, and if there was difficulty with reading and spelling early on this usually persisted. Only a few of the children who had problems with reading in second grade improved enough so that they attained average scores at the end of eighth grade. The poorest readers read at the same level at the end of fourth grade as average readers did at the end of first grade. At the end of eighth grade these children had attained the level of average readers at the end of second grade. Similarly, poor spellers showed less improvement over time than children with average spelling skills. By the end of eighth grade these children had fallen way behind their peers.