Responding to parental concern about children's reading

This study explored if parents are accurate in their reading concerns, with implications for paediatric practice.

Parents of school-aged children in 34 schools in Ontario, Canada responded to a questionnaire about their children's academic development (27% response), and their children participated in standardized, norm-referenced tests of word reading and an oral sentence recall task. Parental concern status was retrospectively cross-referenced with reading difficulty status (<25th percentile on the word reading tests) for grade 2 children with complete data (n = 294); diagnostic accuracy was evaluated. Demographic and reading-related characteristics of children whose parents' concern did not match their reading difficulty status were explored.

Approximately 22% of parents endorsed concern, while 18.5% of children had word reading difficulty. Parental concern status accurately corresponded with reading difficulty status in 81% of cases (95% CI: 76% to 85%). Specificity was 85% (95% CI: 80% to 90%), while sensitivity was 59% (95% CI: 44% to 73%). Children of unconcerned parents rarely had word reading problems (NPV 91%; 95% CI: 88% to 94%), while children with concerned parents had word reading difficulty in 45% of cases (PPV; 95% CI: 36% to 54%). Apparent inaccuracy (i.e., mismatch between parental concern and reading difficulty status) was related to children's word reading, oral sentence recall skills, and English language learner (ELL) status, but not child age, sex, or parent education.

Many parents of grade 2 children endorse reading concerns. Parental concern is an overall accurate screener for word reading difficulty, although some children will be missed. Evidence-informed recommendations for responding to parental concern are provided.