Early language development and kindergarten phonological awareness as predictors of reading problems: From 3 to 11 years of age

At the end of Grade 4, 481 children on the Danish island of Bornholm were s creened using group tests for sentence reading. For 205 of these children, language and speech data from the speech therapist's screening at age 3 wer e available, as well as language comprehension and linguistic awareness dat a from the kindergarten year (age 6) and word decoding measures in Grades 2 and 3. A path analysis revealed significant paths from early language abil ities at age 3 through expressive and receptive language in kindergarten vi a language awareness in kindergarten and word decoding in Grade 2 to senten ce reading in Grades 3 and 4. The subgroup of children with parents who had reported a history of reading problems at school entry scored significantl y below average on sentence reading in Grade 4. The subgroup of children th at were reported to show a very low interest in books and story reading bef ore age 5 also scored low on sentence reading in Grade 4. Statistically sig nificant but weak relationships were also found between parents' educationa l background, parents' library visits, and number of books at home and the child's reading ability in Grade 4.