Catherine Snow

English language learners are at risk for future reading difficulties for a number of reasons. Here are some factors all teachers of ELLs should know.

Hispanic students in the United States are at especially high risk of reading difficulties. Despite progress over the past 15 to 20 years, they are about twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to read well below average for their age.

Knowing children with a family history of difficulties are more likely to have trouble learning to read means that efforts can be made with these children to prevent difficulties from developing.

Socioeconomic differences are conventionally indexed by such demographic variables as household income and parents’ education and occupation, alone or in some weighted combination.

Knowing which children are more likely to be at risk for reading problems allows for early intervention to prevent the majority of these problems from developing. Learn what group and individual factors make certain children at risk.