EARLY LINGUISTIC ATTAINMENT, FAMILY BACKGROUND AND PERFORMANCE IN 16+EXAMINATIONS

This study presents data collected towards the end of their school car eers from pupils originally studied at pre-school age as part of the B ristol Language Development Study. Data were originally collected on v arious aspects of the early language development of these children and , in particular, on naturally occurring language in the home, based on recorded samples of verbal interactions. More recently, data have bee n collected on the 16+ examination performance of these children as th ey reach the end of compulsory schooling. The analysis demonstrates a considerable degree of continuity between early language development a nd later examination performance, and also a strong relationship betwe en family background and examination results and a moderate relationsh ip between family background and early language measures. Further anal ysis provided some support to a model which accounts for the relations hip across time in terms of the influence of social background on both early and later measures. A model which has early language as a key f actor in explaining the relationship between family background and exa mination results received little support from the data.