Linguistic precocity and the development of reading: The role of extralinguistic factors

Abstract

The language and literacy skills of 21 children (aged 6;6), who were selected for linguistic precocity at age 1;8, are reported here. Verbal abilities remained high, and in contrast to the findings at 4;6 (reported in Crain-Thoreson & Dale, 1992), reading achievement is now at a superior level. Overall, the results are consistent with a two-phase model of reading development, in which the second phase is more closely related to language ability than the first. Phonological awareness, as indexed by a phoneme deletion task, appears to emerge as a consequence, rather than a cause, of early reading. There also appears to be a complex relationship among early interest in reading, instruction, and reading development. Differences in child interest in books and book reading may evoke variation in literacy-relevant experiences.

Parental Involvement in the Development of Children’s Reading Skill: A Five‐Year Longitudinal Study

“…The finding that parents' reports of teaching predicted concurrent and subsequent emergent literacy skills contributes to a small body of evidence on experiential factors, other than book exposure, that explain the development of early individual differences in literacy skills (e.g., Crain-Thoreson & Dale, 1992;Dale, Crain-Thoreson, & Robinson, 1995;Evans et al, 2000). These findings are important in light of the relative stability of these early individual differences once children commence formal instruction in reading (e.g., Wagner et al, 1997).…”

Parent-Child Interaction in Three Conversational Contexts: Variations in Style and Strategy

“…Both quantity and quality of story reading in the home, along with children' s interest in literacy, have been positively related to children' s language and literacy development (Bus, van IJzendoorn, and Pellegrini, 1995;Dale, Crain-Thoreson, and Robinson, 1995;Scarborough and Dobrich, 1994;Thomas, 1984). Whitehurst and colleagues (Valdez-Menchaca and Whitehurst, 1992;others, 1988, 1994), in a series of intervention studies, showed that when parents or teachers adopted an interactive style, engaging their young children in a dialogue about the story, children' s vocabulary development was most likely to be enhanced.…”

On the Inseparability of Grammar and the Lexicon: Evidence from Acquisition, Aphasia and Real-time Processing

“…Much of this work has focussed on the stability of late-or early-talker status over time. For example, it is now clear that some late talkers do go on to qualify for a diagnosis of Specific Language Impairment or SLI, and that some early talkers maintain their precocity over many months or years (see also Dale, Robinson, & Crain-Thoreson, 1992;Robinson et al, 1990). Thal and her colleagues have also concentrated on the factors that predict initial and continuing status as a late or early talker.…”