Profiles of learner readers and their early literacy skills and environmental predictors: a large-scale longitudinal study from preschool to grade 1

Abstract

As part of the French national cohort ELFE, a two-year longitudinal study was conducted and children’s literacy skills were assessed twice (N = 2,767), namely at the end of preschool (t1) and at the end of Grade 1 (t2). At t1, letter-name knowledge (LNK), phonological skills (PhoSk) and vocabulary were assessed and at t2, phonemic segmentation, word reading, listening and reading comprehension. Latent profile analyses conducted at t2 resulted in five profiles, ranging from good readers (48.8%), to average readers above the mean (16.2%), readers with very low phonological awareness skill (8.2%), poor readers with low reading comprehension skill (19.4%), and poor readers with general difficulties (7.4%). Two early literacy skills (LNK and PhoSk) and two environmental variables (parents’ educational level and household income) constituted good predictors of membership of a profile. However, home literacy practices also predicted membership of the good reader/poor reader profiles, albeit at a lower level.

Examining the relations between early language skills and environmental variables and literacy skills: A longitudinal study from 2 to 9 years

“…If we turn our attention to three environmental variables which are expected to be associated with literacy skills, we observe that PEL and household income are important factors impacting early language skills (expressive vocabulary) and later literacy skills, whereas the home environment learning is associated only with literacy skills at 5 years (see also Ecalle et al, 2023).…”

“…Literacy skills (LitSk7y). Children were evaluated with four tasks (see Ecalle et al, 2023). In the phonemic awareness task (/10), the children had to draw the same number of circles as the number of phonemes heard in a pseudoword spoken by the teacher.…”