Predicting Adolescent Arithmetic and Reading Dysfluency

Abstract

The long-term negative consequences of learning difficulties have been acknowledged. Nonetheless, research is still scarce regarding the prediction of adolescent difficulties in reading and arithmetic skills. The present study examines at which age phase and with what kind of constellation of parent- and child-related factors can adolescent difficulties in arithmetic and/or reading fluency be successfully predicted. A sample of Finnish children (N = 941) was followed from the onset of kindergarten (at age 6) through adolescence (ages 13–16). Children’s cognitive skills were assessed in kindergarten, and arithmetic and reading fluency were examined in Grades 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9. Parents’ self-report data were collected on their own learning difficulties and educational level. Scoring below the 16th percentile in both Grades 7 and 9 was set as the criterion for dysfluency either in reading (N = 87, 9.2%) or arithmetic (N = 84, 8.9%). Adolescent dysfluency in both domains was moderately predicted by parental measures and kindergarten cognitive skills. Although adding school-age fluency measures clearly increased both the predictability and specificity of models up to Grade 4 for both skills, knowledge of letters’ names, counting, and visuospatial skills remained unique predictors of dysfluency in adolescence.