Modern behavioural genetic studies of twins in the United States, Australia, Scandinavia, and the United Kingdom show that genes account for most of the variance in children’s reading ability measured at the end of the first year of formal reading instruction. Although strong genetic influences do not reduce the importance of environment for reading development in the population (and therefore for helping struggling readers), the efficacy of setting the same minimal performance criterion for all children is called into question by these findings.

Authors: Richard K. Olson, Janice M. Keenan, Brian Byrne, & Stefan Samuelsson

Source: Olson, R.K., Keenan, J.M., Byrne, B., & Samuelsson S. (2014). Why do children differ in their development of reading and related skills? Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 38–54. DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2013.800521

Modern behavioural genetic studies of twins in the United States, Australia, Scandinavia, and the United Kingdom show that genes account for most of the variance in children’s reading ability measured at the end of the first year of formal reading instruction. Although strong genetic influences do not reduce the importance of environment for reading development in the population (and therefore for helping struggling readers), the efficacy of setting the same minimal performance criterion for all children is called into question by these findings.

• Why do children differ in their development of reading and related skills?
• Answers to this question have been predominantly environmental, including preschool language and print exposure, the quality and quantity of reading instruction in school, peer and family influences, socioeconomic status (SES), and learning to read in a second language.
• This environmental focus is understandable because reading is a learned skill that initially depends on formal instruction.
• A different perspective on the aetiology of individual differences in reading and related skills has been provided by behavioural genetic studies that compare similarities between large samples of identical (monozygotic or MZ) and fraternal (dizygotic or DZ) twins who share their home and school environment, yet differ in their additive genetic similarity (100% for MZ pairs, 50% of segregating genes for DZ pairs).

The genetic and environmental aetiology of reading disability

• DeFries and Fulker (1985) recognised that the continuous normal distribution of reading ability in the population could be used to support a continuous regression method for assessing the average genetics and environmental aetiology of twins’ reading disability, based on the similarity of the MZ and DZ co-twins’ regression to the population mean.
• In behavioural genetic studies, additive genetic influence is labelled as A, shared environmental influence as C, and non-shared environmental influence as E.
• Here, only A and C percentages are used, because E simply equals 100% – (A%+C%).
• For reading disability, A~60% and C~30%; thus, the average influence of genes is approximately twice as strong as the shared environment.
• The genetic effect is higher in a high SES environment than a low SES environment.

The genetic and environmental aetiology of individual differences in reading

• While it is important to understand the aetiology of reading disabilities, it is also important to understand the aetiology of the full normally-distributed variation in reading and related skills in the population.
• There are low-to-moderate genetic correlations between word decoding and oral language.
• For example, the genetic correlation (r_g) between word recognition and listening comprehension is modest (r_g = .37).
• This highlights the importance of partly independent genetic influences on paired associate learning between print and speech for the development of word recognition.
• When reading and related skills were modelled as latent traits in children aged 10 and 16 years, the latent-trait longitudinal correlations were r = .98 for word recognition, r = 1.0 for phonological awareness, r = .93 for phonological decoding, and r = .95 for spelling.
• This means that most children establish a very stable developmental trajectory for growth in reading and related skills by 10 years of age.
• At preschool, most individual differences on a print-knowledge latent trait (primarily based on letter name and sound knowledge) were due to differences in shared family environment (A = 20%-26%; C = 62%–74%).
• By the end of kindergarten, most children could read enough words and nonwords that the genetic and environmental effect could be estimated according to their individual differences.
• Considering regional results, those individual differences were mostly due to genes in Australia (A = 84%; C = 9%) and in Colorado (A = 68%; C = 25%); however, in Scandinavia they were mostly due to shared environment (A = 33%; C = 52%). This may be because reading is not formally taught in Scandinavia until the first grade.
• However, after all children had received a year of formal reading instruction, genetic influence was approximately as strong in Scandinavia (A = 79%; C = 7%) as it was in Australia (A = 80%; C = 2%) and in Colorado (A = 83%; C = 7%) at the end of first grade.
• The conclusion drawn from these findings is that after a year of formal reading instruction, individual differences in word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension are highly influenced by genes in these populations.
• It is recognised that environmental influences have a significant effect, as the level of reading in the population is affected by learning to read in classrooms and homes.
• When compared with the strong shared environmental influences on preschool print knowledge, it appears that formal reading instruction in schools considerably reduces the environmental variance of reading development in these populations.
• In part, schools aim to overcome the factors that produce significant differences among children before they attend school, particularly when those environmental influences are negative.

Implications

• The implication for education is that depending on the severity of reading difficulties, more reading practice (possibly involving computer or tutor support for decoding difficulties) may be required for children with genetically constrained learning rates for reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. This will support them attaining or more closely approaching the necessary ‘grade-level’ criterion (average performance).
• All children should have strong support for their reading development, including the opportunity for additional intensive instruction for those with learning difficulties in reading.
• The evidence for strong genetic influences on many reading difficulties (including reading fluency, which appears most resistant to intervention) indicates that a much more nuanced approach is applied to reading ability expectations for children.
• There is evidence that some of the high genetic influence on reading ability is due to a gene-environment correlation for reading practice, further emphasising the importance of reading environment in reading development.
• Even if estimates of shared environmental variance are very low in a twin sample, this does not preclude changes in the environment for improving reading at the low end of the distribution in that sample, as well as across the whole sample.
• Thus, regardless of the levels of genetic and environmental influence in a population, there is always room for well-designed interventions (including extended reading practice) and research should continue to explore the most effective interventions for reading difficulty and for improving literacy in the population as a whole.

This study examined 85 children from baseline and 2 years later. Although more unschooled children had learned to read, their phonological awareness (PA) had not generally improved. Schooling independently predicted PA and literacy.

Authors: Katherine J. Alcock, Damaris S. Ngorosho, & Matthew C.H. Jukes

Source: Alcock, K.J., Ngorosho, D.S., & Jukes, M.C.H. (2017). Reading and phonological awareness in Africa. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 1-10. DOI: 10.1177/0022219417728051

Literacy levels in Africa are low, and school instruction outcomes are not promising. Phonological awareness (PA), especially phoneme awareness, is critically associated with literacy. Our previous study found that PA was associated with reading ability, not schooling or age. We retested 85 children from the baseline study 2 years later. We found that more unschooled children had now learned to read; however, PA had generally not improved for these children. Schooling now independently predicted PA and literacy. PA also predicted literacy and vice versa. Explicit phoneme awareness was again poor.

• Africa is the only continent where more than half of parents cannot read sufficiently well to help their children with their homework.
• Africa has 51% of the world’s out-of-school children.
• Phonological awareness (PA) is a multicomponent skill that has been strongly linked to the development of word reading.
• In this study, PA is an abbreviation of phonological awareness; phoneme awareness was not abbreviated.
• A recent, large-scale meta-analysis by Melby-Lervåg, Lyster, and Hulme (2012) found that the concurrent relationship between phoneme awareness and reading was stronger than the relationships between rime awareness/working memory and reading, and independent of relationships between rime awareness/working memory and reading.
• Literacy may to some degree be a prerequisite for gaining phoneme awareness.

The study

In this study, the same cohort of children in Tanzania that were part of a baseline study who were previously either in or out of school were followed up two years later. We aimed to determine whether children’s initial literacy skills continued to be the only influence on their PA at follow-up, or whether schooling, children’s age, or initial PA skills now influence PA skills independently.

Hypothesis

• Literacy at baseline (Time 1) will predict PA after 2 years (Time 2).
• PA at Time 1 (T1) will predict literacy at Time 2 (T2).
• Age and school instruction will not have an independent relationship with PA over and above literacy.

The sample

Of the original sample of 101 children in Tanzania, 85 were tested on reading and PA at T1 and T2. Children were 10–13 years old at T2.

Summary

• Almost every child was at T2 when they were 10–13 years old, and a functional “decoder” in this regular orthography (Kiswahili), whether or not they had been to school. This confirms our prediction that literacy would have improved at T2 even among children who had never been to school.
• Children both in and out of school can benefit from self-teaching through phonological recoding.
• It seems that children who are in school are better at PA tasks in general than those who are not in school.
• All children continued to perform poorly specifically on a proxy measure for explicit phoneme awareness.

Implications

• Children can gain some PA skills (including some phoneme manipulation skills) before attending school and/or learning to read.
• Some PA skills will fail to improve among children who are out of school, even though the majority would be accurate word decoders at age 10–13 years.
• Without literacy, PA in general and phoneme awareness in particular cannot be developed beyond basic levels; however, once the initial stages of literacy are gained, PA boosts literacy.
• Schooling is nevertheless increasing children’s literacy and PA skills.
• Schooling may improve literacy and PA through additional concentrated practice, access to higher-level reading books, or explicit classroom practices.
• Literacy instruction tends to emphasise syllable (rather than phoneme) awareness.
• Children’s home language skills can assist in their school learning.

This study explored the progress of reading and writing skills from preschool to grade 2 among three groups: a risk group, an early readers group, and a middle group. Differences were observed between these groups through the school years in pre-reading skills, reading and spelling skills, and motivation. These skills were lowest in risk group and highest in early readers group.

Authors: Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Anna-Maija Poikkeus, Timo Ahonen, Martti Siekkinen, Pekka Niemi, & Jari-Erik Nurmi

Source: Lerkkanen, M-K., Poikkeus, A-M., Ahonen, T., Siekkinen, M., Niemi, P., & Nurmi, J-E. (2010). Luku- ja kirjoitustaidon kehitys sekä motivaatio esi- ja alkuopetusvuosina. Kasvatus, 41(2), 116–128.

This study explored the progress of reading and writing skills from preschool to grade 2 among three groups: a risk group, an early readers group, and a middle group. Differences were observed between these groups through the school years in pre-reading skills, reading and spelling skills, and motivation. Parents of early readers had more positive performance expectations and beliefs about their child and they taught reading more frequently to their child.

• Preschool provides the foundation for learning to read and write by supporting children through playful activities, phonemic awareness, and letter knowledge.
• Approximately a third of Finnish children starting school already know how to read, and they remain in the region of one year ahead of others in reading speed.
• Approximately 5%–20% of children are at-risk in terms of reading difficulty.
• Letter knowledge and phonological skills predict later reading and writing skills.
• Reading comprehension depends on reading fluency. Furthermore, vocabulary and listening comprehension, deduction, metacognitive skills, and memory are all related to reading comprehension.
• Self-concept, working habits, and interests are motivational constructs related to reading.
• There is a reciprocal relationship between motivation and reading skills development.

The study

This study formed part of the larger First Steps study, in which approximately 2000 children were followed from preschool to grade 9. In this particular study, children’s reading and writing skill development was monitored from preschool to grade 2 among three groups: a risk group for reading difficulty (n = 162), an early readers group (n = 469), and a middle group including all the other children (n = 1205).

Research questions:

• How do the risk and the early readers groups differ in reading and spelling skills’ development and motivation?
• How do girls and boys differ in reading and spelling skills development and motivation?
• How are parents’ expectations and beliefs related to development of reading and spelling skills and motivation in both the risk and early readers groups?

The study included several assessments (on a yearly basis) of student academic performance, motivation, social skills, and wellbeing.

Implications

Children in the risk group had lower pre-reading, reading, and spelling skills, as well as motivation compared to other children. Furthermore, their parents had lower achievement expectations and beliefs as well as guiding their children less towards reading. Children in the risk group may need more motivation and individualised support at school to learn to read. Their vocabulary and listening comprehension skills should already be practiced in preschool. Risk group children (especially boys) might benefit from teaching that includes adventure, action, and movement while learning letters, phonemes, and decoding. In addition, computer-based games might help them to learn to read. One important factor in learning is the teacher–student relationship and the quality of instruction. The quality of teaching practice and emotional support affects the climate of the class and therefore also student motivation and reading skill development.

The present study focused on how does the young child become excited about reading. The number of books at home, library visits, and the type of reading modelled by the parents are all important, as well as shared reading with the child. However, the child’s independent reading is the most important thing.

Authors: Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Jenni Salminen, & Eija Pakarinen

Source: Lerkkanen, M.-K., Salminen, J., & Pakarinen, E. (2018). Varhaislapsuuden lukuhetket tukevat lukutaitoa. Onnimanni, 1-2, 20-26.

How does the young child become excited about reading? According to our research, the home environment has an effect. The number of books at home, library visits, and the type of reading modelled by the parents are all important, as well as shared reading with the child. However, the child’s independent reading is the most important thing.

• The home literacy environment is important for the child.
• A rich literacy environment provides opportunities to get to know the language.
• Finnish parents value reading. For the child, a bedtime story is read, library visits are shared, and books are available. Thus, the child is exposed to language and reading.

The study

Here, two studies are presented about the HLE of children aged 2–3 years and 6 years old and their pre-reading skills.

Participants in the first study were 208 parents who reported their HLE practices with their 2–3-year old children. The second study consisted of 536 children aged 6 years old and 362 parents who reported the HLE and child’s pre-reading skills.

How parents can support their child’s reading skill development

• Read to their child.
• Read with their child.
• Listen when their child reads.
• Visit the library together with their child.

What are the benefits of reading to a child?

• The child learns to notice the relationship between the spoken and written language.
• The child learns to notice the relationship between text and their own experiences.
• The child develops awareness of the structure of written language.
• The child develops vocabulary and comprehension of language.
• The child develops listening comprehension skills.
• The child learns the basics of reading, and may even actually learn to read.

This study explored the development of children’s reading skills in two transparent orthographies: Estonian and Finnish. Despite Estonian children had formal reading instruction one year earlier and thus better reading skills at the beginning of school, fluency and reading comprehension skills were at the same level across both groups by the end of first grade.

Authors: Piret Soodla, Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen,Pekka Niemi, Eve Kikas, Gintautas Silinskas & Jari-Erik Nurmi

Source: Soodla P., Lerkkanen, M.-K., Niemi, P., Kikas, E., Silinskas, G., & Nurmi, J.-E. (2015). Does early instruction promote the rate of acquisition? A comparison of two transparent orthographies. Learning and Instruction, 38, 14–23. DOI: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2015.02.002

This study explored the development of children’s reading skills in two transparent orthographies: Estonian and Finnish. Formal reading instruction begins one year earlier in Estonia than in Finland. Despite Estonian children having better reading skills at the beginning of school, fluency and reading comprehension skills were at the same level across both groups by the end of first grade. Thus, an earlier start to reading instruction in transparent orthographies does not necessarily offer any long-term advantage.

• The development of reading skills is influenced by children’s pre-reading skills and several underlying cognitive antecedents, as well as teaching practices in literacy instruction.
• The timing of when proper literacy instruction commences can also have different short- and long-term effects. Although the importance of early reading instruction in kindergarten has been emphasised, there are doubts concerning its benefits for children’s later reading development.
• The optimal age for reading instruction may also depend on the language.

The study

The present study compared the development of children’s reading skills during the first school year in two languages with highly transparent and linguistically related orthographies: Estonian and Finnish. Estonian children are expected to have basic decoding skills before their entrance into primary school, whereas in Finland, formal literacy instruction begins in the first grade.

• Estonian children are expected to know all Estonian letters and be able to read and spell one- and two-syllable words before they begin school.
• Finnish kindergarten education should create a foundation for literacy skills, but children’s reading skills are not explicitly taught. About 30% of students are decoders at the beginning of school in Finland.

Participants were 433 Estonian children from 22 different classrooms and 353 Finnish children from 137 different classrooms. The participants were in the first grade at school and all had attended kindergarten. Pre-reading skills (letter knowledge and phoneme awareness) were assessed in September. Word reading skills were assessed in both September and April, and reading comprehension was assessed in April.

Findings

Summary

• Despite Estonian children beginning formal reading instruction one year earlier at the age of 6, both Estonian and Finnish children’s reading skills were largely comparable by the final semester of first grade.
• Estonian children had better pre-reading and decoding skills as well as word recognition and fluency skills than Finnish children at the beginning of their first year at the age of 7.
• Finnish children’s reading skills developed to a greater extent during the first grade.
• Reading comprehension was at a similar level for Estonian and Finnish children at the end of the first grade.

Implications

Because of the fast rate of acquisition of decoding skills in transparent orthographies, linguistic comprehension has a greater influence on reading comprehension at the end of the first grade than decoding. Because Finnish children’s listening comprehension and inference-making skills are both strongly supported during kindergarten and first grade by shared reading and other activities with texts, we expect that these activities might also support the development of reading comprehension. Early reading instruction does not necessarily offer any long-term advantage for further success in reading development at school in transparent orthographies. However, support for children’s general language skills and motivation toward letters and books in kindergarten (as well as overall classroom quality and the phoneme-based reading instruction at grade 1) might play a more significant role in the development of emergent reading skills.

This study examined phonological awareness (PA) and literacy among 108 children aged 7-10 years, who were attending (or not attending) school in rural East Africa. Implicit and explicit PA skill with small or large units was related to letter naming ability. Basic PA develops prior to the attainment of literacy, and learning to read improves PA.

Authors: K.J. Alcock, D. Ngorosho, C. Deus, & M.C.H. Jukes

Source: Alcock, K.J., Ngorosho, D., Deus, C., & Jukes, M.C.H. (2009). We do not have language at our house: disentangling the relationship between phonological awareness, schooling, and literacy. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(1), 55–76. DOI:10.1348/000709909X424411

The aim of this study was to examine phonological awareness (PA) and literacy among 108 children aged 7–10 years, who were attending (or not attending) school in rural East Africa. Implicit and explicit PA skill with small or large units was related to letter naming ability. Some PA tasks were performed above chance levels by children who could not recognise letters. Basic PA develops prior to the attainment of literacy, and learning to read improves PA.

• Phonological awareness (PA) is a metalinguistic skill that has been defined as the ability to reflect on phonological properties of words, for example, seeing similarities between words, manipulating words (including forming new words), and awareness of the constituent parts of words.
• Two hypotheses concerning the association between literacy and PA skills were included in the study: either earlier PA skills contribute to later literacy skills or earlier literacy skills contribute to later PA skills.
• If training in PA leads to improvement in reading skills, this might indicate that earlier PA contributes to later literacy skills.
• If PA can be shown to exist in individuals who have not yet learned any literacy skills, this would help discriminate between these two alternative theories.
• It has been suggested that once children learn to read, they carry out PA tasks in a qualitatively different way.

The study

This study was conducted in coastal Tanzania, where approximately 65% of children attend school. The language spoken is Kiswahili. Children are not explicitly taught the phonemes associated with letters, only the syllabic letter name. Some of the children not in school can nonetheless read, while some attending school cannot. This study examines the influence of literacy experience and skill on PA using tasks at a variety of levels of representation and variety of levels of response.

The sample

108 children (54 boys and 54 girls) with between 0 and 2 years of educational experience participated in the study. They were between 7 and 10 years old and all spoke Kiswahili.

Summary

Performance of PA tasks at a variety of levels of response or size of unit was related to the ability to perform on the letter reading task at above chance levels. This is consistent with the hypothesis that basic letter reading ability would influence PA. Neither verbal cognitive test performance, nor family or environmental variables explained the relationship between PA and letter naming. This might be because learning to read alters the way children carry out PA tasks. Children who have not yet learned to read are capable of performing above chance on PA tasks, but the main predictor of performance is letter naming ability, whilst some of the PA tasks appear impossible for non-readers. These results provide evidence of implicit PA and some evidence of more explicit PA among children who had not yet learned to read letters.

Implications

• PA does not improve solely due to maturation.
• Some level of PA, including some phoneme awareness, develops before children learn to read; however, that literacy acquisition is necessary for further development of PA.
• All children performed very poorly on the most explicit phoneme manipulation task (phoneme segmenting), although children who could read letters performed better.
• Thus, although children (even those children who could not yet read letters) do have some PA, they may not have explicit phoneme awareness.
• For explicit phoneme awareness tasks, knowing how to read letters is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for success.

This study examines the role of the home environment in children’s literacy skills for a sample of 75 grade 2 children from rural eastern Tanzania. Fathers’ education and mothers’ occupation were strong predictors of phonological awareness and reading and writing.

Authors: Damaris Ngorosho & Ulla Lahtinen

Source: Ngorosho, D., & Lahtinen, U. (2010). The role of the home environment in phonological awareness and reading and writing ability in Tanzanian primary school children. Education Inquiry, 1(3), 211–234. DOI: 10.3402/edui.v1i3.21943

This study examines the role of the home environment in children’s literacy skills for a sample of 75 grade 2 children from rural eastern Tanzania. Most of the factors studied were significantly related to phonological awareness and reading and writing. Fathers’ education and mothers’ occupation were strong predictors of phonological awareness and reading and writing. Home environment variables accounted for 25% of the variance in phonological awareness and 19% in reading and writing ability.

• It is well known that the home environment is one of the most important factors influencing the development of a child’s language and literacy skills.
• Socioeconomic status and home literacy environment are related to children’s phonological awareness and reading and writing ability.

The study

The aim of this study was to identify specific aspects of the home environment that predict children’s phonological awareness and reading and writing ability in Kiswahili in Tanzania.

Participants were 75 grade 2 children aged between 8 and 10 years. The selection of the children was guided by their fathers’ education. The idea was to find fathers with a variety of education levels. Children’s phonological awareness and reading and writing ability were tested, and their female guardians participated by completing a questionnaire-based interview. All measures were designed in Kiswahili.

Practical Implications

• It was found that various home environment variables make a significant contribution to phonological awareness and reading and writing scores.
• Results suggest a need for the government to strengthen developing plans for improving the home environment because this plays an important role in enhancing literacy and learners’ education.
• Early screening and support for children who are not developing as good readers are proposed for inclusion in educational plans and strategies.
• Activities such as children’s book projects and school library facilities are suggested, aiming at supporting literacy-related activities in low income homes.

This study examines how the home environment related to the reading and writing ability of 300 Kiswahili-speaking children in grade 3 living in a rural area in eastern Tanzania. Results showed that reading and writing skills correlated moderately or highly with home environment variables, especially, fathers’ education, house wall material, number of books for school subjects, and parental involvement in the child’s school learning.

Author: Damaris Ngorosho

Source: Ngorosho, D. (2011). Reading and writing ability in relation to home environment: A study in primary education in rural Tanzania. Child Indicators Research, 4, 369–388. DOI: 10.1007/s12187-010-9089-8

This study examines how the home environment relates to the reading and writing ability of 300 Kiswahili-speaking children in grade 3 living in a rural area in eastern Tanzania. Three hundred grade 3 children were assessed for letter, word, and sentence reading and word-writing abilities. Mothers responded to a questionnaire-based interview about the home environment. Results showed that reading and writing skills correlated moderately or highly with home environment variables, especially, fathers’ education, house wall material, number of books for school subjects, and parental involvement in the child’s school learning, all of which predicted reading and writing ability.

• The home environment is known to play an important role in the development of reading and writing ability.
• The home environment is a social context in which children live with people who contribute to their development in reading and writing ability.
• Home environment, family, the neighbourhood, peers, and other settings such as school, are the immediate contexts or settings for children’s learning.
• Bronfenbrenner (1977) emphasised that a person’s development occurs through processes of shared interactions and activities that occur within microsystems.
• Parents with a higher level of education talk to and use more complex and varied language with their children, which in turn predicts better reading skills.
• In addition to educational materials, interactions between parents and children while they engage in literacy-related activities are likely to be relevant for the development of reading and writing skills.

Practical Implications

• The significant variables predicting reading and writing ability were fathers’ education and those describing housing and the home literacy environment.
• Home environment variables accounted for almost one third (31%) of the total variance in children’s ability to read and write.
• Due to overcrowded classes (up to 100 children in primary schools in some areas), teachers use a chanting-like chorusing method to teach reading and writing.
• Study results indicate that in addition to approaches based on improving the curriculum and school environment, the focus should also be on actions for improving the home environment and parental involvement in their child’s school learning.

This study is a long-term follow-up study to investigate whether early expressive vocabulary delay (late talking) predicts reading development in participants age 16 years and under. The sample consisted of 200 Finnish-speaking children, of whom 108 had family risk for dyslexia (FR) and 92 came from families without reading difficulties. The group with FR and expressive and receptive vocabulary delay had difficulties in reading comprehension, but not in reading fluency.

Authors: Maria Psyridou, Kenneth Eklund, Anna-Maija Poikkeus, & Minna Torppa

Source: Psyridou, M., Eklund, K., Poikkeus, A-M., & Torppa, M. (2018). Reading outcomes of children with delayed early vocabulary: A follow-up from age 2–16. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 78, 114–124. DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2018.05.004

This study is a long-term follow-up study to investigate whether early expressive vocabulary delay (late talking) predicts reading development in participants age 16 years and under. Expressive and receptive vocabulary skills were assessed at the age of 2–2.5 years and reading skills at the age of 8–16 years. The sample consisted of 200 Finnish-speaking children, of whom 108 had family risk for dyslexia (FR) and 92 came from families without reading difficulties. The group with FR and expressive and receptive vocabulary delay had difficulties in reading comprehension, but not in reading fluency.

• The study included five subgroups: 1) FR and no vocabulary delay; 2) FR and late talkers; 3) FR, late talkers, and co-existing receptive vocabulary delay; 4) no FR and late talkers; and 5) no FR and no vocabulary delay.
• A delay in early vocabulary can lead to a persistent deficit whereby expressive vocabulary deficit alone can be alleviated in time, whereas the combined deficit is a stronger risk marker.
• It is important to be able to predict as early as possible which children may be at risk of learning difficulties in their school years.
• Family risk for dyslexia is linked to both vocabulary and reading difficulties and may be the underlying cause for late talkers’ problems in reading.

The study

This study investigated the reading development of native Finnish-speaking children with early expressive vocabulary delay to the age of 16 years with respect to both reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined whether this relationship is different in the presence (or absence) of other co-occurring risk factors, namely family risk (FR) for dyslexia and early receptive vocabulary delay.

Research questions:

• Does early expressive vocabulary delay predict difficulties in reading fluency or reading comprehension in children aged 8–16 years?
• Is the relationship between early expressive vocabulary delay and reading development different in the presence (and absence) of receptive vocabulary delay and family risk for dyslexia?

Participants were 200 Finnish-speaking children, of whom 108 were placed in the FR dyslexia group and 92 were placed in the no family risk (NR) for dyslexia group.

Implications

• Early expressive language delay predicts reading comprehension, but not reading fluency development.
• Late talking alone was not a sufficient risk index for reading comprehension difficulties for either children with FR for dyslexia or for children without such risk.
• Only the children with both expressive and receptive vocabulary delays and FR had clear difficulties in reading comprehension.
• The children who had delays in both expressive and receptive vocabulary as toddlers demonstrated persistent weaknesses in comparison to the other groups in reading comprehension measures.
• The children with both receptive and expressive vocabulary delay also had FR for dyslexia. However, because the other FR children (the group who did not have a vocabulary delay and the group who had only an expressive delay) manifested average reading comprehension, it can be assumed that it is the combined vocabulary difficulty, rather than FR per se, that underlies reading comprehension difficulties.
• The link between reading comprehension and early vocabulary could be explained by the simple view of reading model.
• In contrast to reading comprehension, reading fluency was found to be linked with FR for dyslexia and not with the presence of early expressive vocabulary delay.
• The finding of no link from late talking to reading fluency development appears to contradict the lexical restructuring hypothesis, which suggests a link between early vocabulary and reading fluency mediated via phonological skills. The mediated impact of expressive and/or receptive vocabulary delay via phonological processing to reading skills may thus be broader and may be sustained longer among less transparent orthographies.
• In addition to expressive vocabulary delay, it is critical to recognise a delay in receptive skills as an early risk factor, as a delay only in expressive vocabulary is not informative enough to predict school age reading development.
• Children with expressive vocabulary delay (especially those with FR for dyslexia and receptive vocabulary delay as additional risk factors) should be provided extra support.

This study examines associations between leisure reading and reading skills in data of 2,525 students followed from age 7 to 16. In grades 1-3 poorer comprehension and fluency predicted less leisure reading. In later grades more frequent leisure reading, particularly of books, predicted better reading comprehension.

Authors: Minna Torppa, Kati Vasalampi, Pekka Niemi, Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Asko Tolvanen, & Anna-Maija Poikkeus

Source: Torppa, M., Vasalampi, K., Niemi, P., Lerkkanen, M-K., Tolvanen, A., & Poikkeus, A-S. (2019). Leisure reading (but not any kind) and reading comprehension support each other – A longitudinal study across grades 1 and 9. Child Development, epub before print, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13241

This study examines associations between leisure reading and reading skills in data of 2,525 students followed from age 7 to 16. In grades 1-3 poorer comprehension and fluency predicted less leisure reading. In later grades more frequent leisure reading, particularly of books, predicted better reading comprehension. Negative associations were found between digital reading and reading skills.

• There is a common belief that in addition to school-related reading activities, reading for pleasure promotes reading development.
• Those who read a lot are better readers than those who read less.
• Parents and teachers would be well advised to encourage children to become habitual readers.

The study

This study contributes to the previous literature on the role of leisure reading in reading development by applying a long-term longitudinal design, comprehensive assessment of the key measures, and a sophisticated analysis method for developmental data.

Research questions:

• Are the development of reading skills and the amount of leisure reading of different genres associated at the between-person level? That is, do better readers also read more?
• Are reading skills and leisure reading of different genres mutually predictive at the within-person level? That is, does an increase in leisure reading predict increased reading fluency or better comprehension at the subsequent time point and vice versa?

Participants were 2,525 students born in 2000 who were studies from kindergarten to grade 9.

Summary

• Overall, the results suggest positive associations between leisure reading and reading competence.
• It was shown that these associations vary as a function of time, leisure reading genre, and reading competence measure.
• There was a positive association between reading comprehension and voluntary book reading.
• Digital reading demonstrated a negative association; however, it is important to note that the questions included only short texts such as social media and messaging.
• Associations between leisure reading and reading fluency were weak.
• Slow readers and poor comprehenders read all types of leisure reading genres less than fluent readers and good comprehenders.
• The strongest positive effects were found for book reading.
• During the early grades, the predictive cross-lagged paths ran from reading fluency and comprehension to leisure reading, but not from leisure reading to reading competence.
• In the later grades, active book reading in particular was reciprocally associated with reading comprehension, but not with reading fluency.
• It therefore appears that leisure reading does not promote reading fluency; however, reading fluency can act as a constraint on leisure reading during the early school years.
• Skilled reading comprehension promoted leisure reading in grades 1–9. In later grades, an association was found to be reciprocal and the effects of leisure reading on reading comprehension were stronger than the converse.
• These findings underline the importance of leisure reading for reading comprehension development and suggest that we should pay close attention to the development of reading interest from early grades onwards.