‘But what are the prospects for the future, Doctor?’ This question is frequently asked by parents of children with learning disability. But longitudinal studies of the outcome in adulthood of childhood learning disability are lacking. At the same time, extrapolating prognoses from the available evidence is unreliable. Increasingly, however, clinicians are faced with this basic question that is on the minds of parents who have gleaned ‘information’ from other sources, notably the internet. So, what can be usefully and reliably claimed regarding outcome in adulthood for children with learning disabilities?