Purpose: This poster addresses findings from a Swedish longitudinal reading project, Reading Development in Kronoberg, during a period of 20 years (1989 until 2010). The purpose is to answer questions about consequences of poor decoding ability in grade two concerning decoding development and ability as adult as well as academic success. Method: On the basis of two word decoding tests administered in a cohort of 2165 children in grade 2 (age 8-9) together with teachers' estimates of poor readers, a total of 103 children with reading disabilities (RD) were selected. A control group of 90 children with normal reading capacity were matched on gender, school class and non-verbal cognitive ability. The RD children and the controls were retested with different reading and cognitive tests in grade 5, 9, 12 and 30 RD plus 28 controls, at the age of 29, together with information about their marks and academic careers. Results: The RD group was significantly poorer at all reading related measures at all test points. Especially, phonological measures and spelling were far behind as well as academic success. The decoding gap between RD and controls increased, in particular after the end of formal schooling. Except a few subjects, they followed a deficit model. Conclusions: It seems like as long as RD takes part of the education system they continues to develop their decoding ability, but than the decoding level away. It also seems like decoding ability in early grades are more important for later academic success than cognitive non-verbal ability.