Precursors of early reading competence in Spanish-speaking children from vulnerable backgrounds

Abstract

The identification of precursors of early reading competence is a promising strategy to prevent reading difficulties. However, it remains unclear whether the available evidence is applicable to reading development in superficial orthographies, such as Spanish, and specifically to population of children from vulnerable backgrounds. To answer this question, multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the explanatory power of (a) expressive vocabulary, (b) phonological awareness, and (c) phoneme-grapheme correspondence skills-measured at the beginning of the first year of primary school-regarding the early reading competence of a purposive sample of 104 first and second grade Spanish-speaking children attending 6 vulnerable private schools in Montevideo, Uruguay. At the beginning of the first year of primary school, these 3 precursors explained 58% of the variance identified in early reading competence. However, one year later, at the beginning of second year of primary school, the same precursors only explained 12% of individual differences in early reading competence. These findings contribute to an empirical body of evidence for the identification of precursors of early reading competence in Spanish speaking children from vulnerable backgrounds.