Girls Are Often Better Readers Than Boys

Boys' Risk of Reading Disability Far Higher Than Girls'

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

By Daniel DeNoon

WebMD Medical News

Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD

SOURCE: Rutter, M. The Journal of the American Medical Association, April 28, 2004; vol 291: pp 2007-2012.

Rutter and colleagues encourage further study. They say it would be very helpful for boys -- as well as for girls with reading disabilities -- to find out what's going on.

WebMD.com
If you're looking at a child who has trouble reading, you're probably looking at a boy.

Children who don't learn to read well tend to have all kinds of problems later in life. However, knowing which children are at risk might get them the help they need before it's too late.

Now it seems that merely being a boy greatly increases the odds of having a reading disability. Michael Rutter, MD, of King's College in London, and colleagues looked at four large studies of children's reading abilities. Their findings appear in the April 28 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Reading disabilities are clearly more frequent in boys than in girls," they conclude.

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Dan