Journal of Research in Reading · 2009 · 118 citations · 54 references
EducationEducational PsychologyLiteracy EducationChild DevelopmentPhonological AwarenessReading DevelopmentAlphabet KnowledgeEarly Literacy DevelopmentEarly Literacy SkillsEarly SpellingReadingSpelling DevelopmentCross-language Phonological AwarenessDevelopmental OrthographyEarly Childhood Literacy DevelopmentEarly Literacy PredictionEarly Reading AcquisitionEarly Reading DevelopmentGrade LevelOrthographic Comparison
The study examined how preschool cognitive and language skills predict kindergarten and grade‑1 reading and spelling across English‑speaking and Scandinavian children. It was a cross‑linguistic longitudinal study of 737 English‑speaking and 169 Scandinavian children from preschool to kindergarten and grade 1. Across both groups, phonological awareness and print knowledge were the strongest predictors of early reading and spelling; rapid naming contributed little in kindergarten but matched these predictors by grade 1, and although spelling in kindergarten showed orthographic differences linked to print knowledge and verbal ability, these differences were ultimately attributable to cultural rather than orthographic factors, indicating that the cognitive and language foundations of early literacy are comparable across alphabetic orthographies.
The importance of cognitive and language skills on reading and spelling development were investigated in a cross‐linguistic longitudinal study of 737 English‐speaking children (US/Australia) and 169 Scandinavian children (Norway/Sweden) from preschool to Kindergarten and Grade 1. The results revealed that phonological awareness and print knowledge were the strongest predictors of early reading and spelling across orthographies. The contribution from rapid naming to literacy development was low in Kindergarten, but similar to that of phonological awareness and print knowledge in Grade 1. The present study identified a significant difference across orthographies in the effects of print knowledge and general verbal ability on spelling in Kindergarten. However, this pattern was explained by cultural rather than orthographic differences. The results indicate that cognitive and language skills underlying early reading and spelling development are similar across alphabetic orthographies.
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