All 788 children attending kindergarten in 2 boroughs of Athens were screened for concentration, hyperkinesis, behaviour disorder and language delay with the help of two questionnaires.The ones with high scores (high risk for presenting learning difficulties (n = 40) were compared with the low (n = 43) and medium (n = 14) risk ones on psychological tests. The above children were reexamined one year later with reading, writing and arithmetic tests. 25% of the high risk groups failed to learn, to read and write while all the low risk group had achieved these abilities. The best predictors were the tests Frostig I and IV and TMS.