[Language and behavioral difficulties at age 3 and half and reading delay in grade 2]

Early detection of specific language impairment and dyslexia in children is an important public health problem. Longitudinal studies are needed for the distinction of real impairments from simple transitory delays.

Teachers filled a 29-item questionnaire on language and behavior for 695 children aged 3.5 years. Four years later (at second grade of primary school) the same children were evaluated for reading and writing. Statistical analysis focused on the relationships between teacher's early observations and reading delay 4 years later. Associated factors were age, sex, educational level and bilinguism of the parents, and area of the school.

The delay in written language acquisition (8.5% of the children) was significantly associated with low educational level (but not bilinguism) of the parents and to the area of the school. In univariate analysis, most of the teacher's early negative assessments were significantly related to reading/writing delay, with the exception of some behavioral problems. However, when the effect of associated factors was taken into account only a few items, mainly concerning language expression, remained significantly associated with later reading/writing delay.

These data show a major role of associated factors (educational level of the parents, area of the school) in reading delay, and help to select specific teacher's observations for an early prediction of this delay.