School-Entry Skills and Early Skill Trajectories Predict Reading After 1 Year

Abstract

Oral language and early literacy skills are theorized to provide the foundation for reading acquisition. To understand these relations, methods are needed that depict dynamic skill development in the context of reading acquisition. We modeled contributions of school-entry skills and early skill trajectories to later reading with 105 5-year-old children beginning primary school and formal literacy instruction in New Zealand. Children were assessed at school-entry (Preschool Early Literacy Indicators), followed every fourth school week over their first 6 months of school (five probes of First Sound Fluency, Letter Sound Fluency, and New Zealand Word Identification Fluency: Year 1), and after 1 year of school (researcheradministered and school-used indices of literacy-related skills and reading progress). Modified latent change score (mLCS) modeling was used to describe skill development from repeated progress-monitoring data. Ordinal regression and structural equation modeling (path analyses) indicated skills at school-entry and early learning trajectories, indexed by mLCS, predicted children’s early literacy progress. Results have implications for research and screening in beginning reading, supporting school-entry screening and progress monitoring of early literacy skills in beginning reading acquisition.