Development of emergent literacy and early reading skills in preschool children: Evidence from a latent-variable longitudinal study

Although research has identified oral language, print knowledge, and phonol ogical sensitivity as important emergent literacy skills for the developmen t of reading, few studies have examined the relations between these aspects of emergent literacy or between these skills during preschool and during l ater reading. This study examined the joint and unique predictive significa nce of emergent literacy skills for both later emergent literacy skills and reading in two samples of preschoolers. Ninety-six children (mean age = 41 months, SD = 9.41) were followed from early to late preschool, and 97 chil dren (mean age = 60 months, SD = 5.41) were followed from late preschool to kindergarten or first grade. Structural equation modeling revealed signifi cant developmental continuity of these skills, particularly for letter know ledge and phonological sensitivity from late preschool to early grade schoo l, both of which were the only unique predictors of decoding.