The Identification and Prevalence of Specific Reading Retardation

S ummary . The existence of a hump at the tail of the distribution of under‐/over‐achievement in reading is generally accepted, yet the evidence in support of this is far from conclusive. In a national sample of 8,836 10‐year‐olds, part of the Child Health and Education Study, the over‐representation of children with severe under‐achievement, i.e. specific reading retardation, could not be confirmed. The implications are that specific reading retardation is the extreme of a continuum of under‐achievement and that any cut‐off point on this continuum used for its definition is arbitrary. Estimates of the prevalence of specific reading retardation must therefore be accompanied by the precise criteria used for its identification.