A Longitudinal Study of Early Reading Development: Letter-Sound Knowledge, Phoneme Awareness and RAN, but Not Letter-Sound Integration, Predict Variations in Reading Development. (3rd March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Clayton, Francina J.; West, Gillian; Sears, Claire; Hulme, Charles; Lervåg, Arne
• Is Part Of: Scientific studies of reading. Volume 24:Number 2(2020)
• Page Start: 91
• Page End: 107
• Publication Date: 2020-03-03
• Subjects: Reading -- Periodicals; 428.405
• DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2019.1622546
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1088-8438

Abstract

ABSTRACT: It is now widely accepted that phonological language skills are a critical foundation for learning to read (decode). This longitudinal study investigated the predictive relationship between a range of key phonological language skills and early reading development in a sample of 191 children in their first year at school. The study also explored the theory that a failure to establish automatic associations between letters and speech sounds is a proximal causal risk factor for difficulties in learning to read. Our findings show that automatic letter-sound associations are established early, but do not predict variations in reading development. In contrast, phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and alphanumeric RAN were all strong independent predictors of reading development. In addition, both phoneme awareness and RAN displayed a reciprocal relationship with reading, such that the growth of reading predicted improvements in these skills.