Early First-Grade Skills Related to Subsequent Reading Performance: A Seven Year Followup Study

Abstract

Reports seven-year followup study of 56 Ss to assess contributions of first-grade skills to subsequent reading performance. The Harrison-Stroud Reading Readiness Profiles and WISC were administered to 5s early in first grade to form a pool of 19 skill tests. Multiple regression analyses were used to screen the skill tests to arrive at a set of independent and significant reading predictors. Results showed that two slightly different sets of skills emerged as short-and long-term predictors. In grade one and two, the ability to understand that printed words stand for ideas and the ability to make visual discriminations were important. Information background and reasoning ability emerged as significant predictors for the long term beginning in second and third grades. The ability to name letters proved a significant and independent predictor at every grade level. An analysis of the relationship of letter naming to other skills revealed that letter-naming ability in early first grade was related to a variety of skills involved in the reading process including sensory and intellectual skills. Related research suggested that individual differences in letter-naming performance in kindergarten and early first grade may reflect, in part, maturational differences among children.

Why is letter-name knowledge such a good predictor of learning to read?

“…Likewise, from a meta-analysis of prediction studies of learning to read, Scarborough (1998) established, as Bond and Dykstra (1967) had three decades earlier, kindergarten LNK as the strongest single predictor of first-grade reading achievement and further concluded that a simple letter naming test ''appears to be nearly as successful at predicting future reading as is giving a more comprehensive readiness battery' ' (p. 83). Kindergarten LNK also predicts initial spelling achievement (Muter et al, 1997;Pennington & Lefly, 2001;Shatil, Share, & Levin, 2000) and contributes enduringly to reading achievement throughout elementary school years, and even afterwards (Blatchford & Plewis, 1990;Muehl & Di Nello, 1976;Vellutino & Scanlon, 1987).…”

“…This latter issue stands at the heart of a long-standing scientific and academic controversy relative to the function of letter names in reading acquisition. For a long time, the most widespread conception among psychologists and scholars was that letter names had no influence in learning to read and would be no more than a passive index of children's familiarity with print (Gibson & Levin, 1975) and/or general cognitive abilities (Muehl & Di Nello, 1976;Venezky, 1975), the latter standing as a third factor in the LNK-reading relationship. Such a view was supported by the failure of experimental training studies to demonstrate that increasing children's LNK level enhances reading ability (Muehl, 1962;Samuels, 1972;see Ehri, 1983, for a critical review).…”

Predictors of writing competence in 4‐ to 7‐year‐old children

“…The pre-reading variable combining the pupils' knowledge of letters and their concepts about print was also related to writing at outcome. Several other studies have reported that the ability to identify letters is associated with more general success with the acquisition of early literacy skills (e.g., Muehl & DiNello, 1976;Tizard et al, 1988). There is evidence that norms are becoming adjusted upwards as preschool children are increasingly being taught these skills, and in 1998 75% of 4-year-olds could recognize the first letter of their name compared to only 58% in 1997 (Performance Indicators in Primary Schools, 1999).…”

Research on the assessment of prereading skills – an American perspective

“…Some recent research findings are providing new ideas for inclusion in current and future readiness tests. Until recently almost every study completed indicated that the single best predictor of end-offirst-grade reading achievement was knowledge of letter names (Muehl and Nello, 1976). A recent study by Mitchell (1974), completed in connection with the revision of the Metropolitan Readiness Tests (1976), shows that entering first grade pupils have already mastered the names of the letters of the alphabet.…”