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Introduction: We examined the concurrent language and cognitive abilities in a group of Swedish students with different reading profiles in secondary school, and the retrospective (primary school) and prospective (upper-secondary school) reading skills of each reading profile.

Methods: Seventy-nine students participated in data collections in primary (grade 2: age 8), secondary (grade 8: age 14) and upper-secondary school (year 2: age 17). Independent variables included measures of word recognition, and vocabulary and text comprehension in secondary school. Dependent variables included measures of phonemic awareness, verbal fluency, listening comprehension, spelling, verbal working memory and nonverbal reasoning skills in secondary school, and word recognition and reading comprehension in primary and upper-secondary school.

Results: When exploring the concurrent language and cognitive abilities of the reading profiles in secondary school, spelling emerged as a weakness and listening comprehension as a strength for students with poor decoding. Students with poor comprehension experienced weaknesses in spelling, and non-verbal reasoning. Students with both poor decoding and comprehension displayed a multi-deficit profile in language and cognition. As regards the retrospective and prospective reading skills, the relative ranking of the reading profiles was rather consistent in both primary and upper-secondary school.

Discussion: The findings suggest that limitations in phonological awareness may not be a prominent feature of secondary school students with poor decoding in more transparent orthographies. From an educational perspective, spoken sources may support learning among students with poor decoding, whereas students with poor comprehension or combined difficulties in decoding and comprehension need support when learning from both spoken and written sources.

This study examined the educational attainment of 139 upper secondary school students in Sweden. More specifically, the aim was to explore the educational attainment of upper secondary students with reading difficulties (n = 49) or with typical reading (n = 90) who had studied Swedish in year 1 (study background 1,SB1) or years 1 and 2 (study background 2, SB2) respectively. After screening for word recognition and reading comprehension, students were divided into two reader subgroups: students with reading difficulties (RD, i.e., poor word recognition and/or poor reading comprehension) and students with typical reading (TR). A chi-square test was performed to explore the proportion of low attainment (F-, E- and D-marks) and high attainment (C-, B- and A-marks) in the foundation subjects Swedish, English, social science, and history. Results showed that students with reading difficulties had lower educational attainment, and especially the SB1-group with RD seemed vulnerable. No significant differences in educational attainment between TR and RD in the SB2-group were observed. Results highlight the need for reading instruction across school subjects, as well as special education support, in upper secondary school.