Associations between phonological development and pre-reading skills in toddlerhood

Previous studies have shown pre-reading skills (PreRS; rapid automatized naming RAN, phonological processing PP, naming skills and letter knowledge LK) to be developmentally stable between ages 3;6-5;0 (Puolakanaho, 2007). Less is known about the associations between these precursors of reading and phonological development in toddlerhood (i.e. paradigmatic development - phoneme inventory; syntagmatic development - ability to combine spoken phonemes). Previous findings about concurrent associations at 3;6 have been found (Aalto et al. 2023), but the longitudinal associations for PreRS have not been explored. This study investigates associations between phonology at 3;6 and 5;0 for PreRS at 5;0. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic development of 66 monolingual, typically developing Finnish children was assessed at both age points with the Finnish Phonology test. At 5;0, PreRS were assessed with two standardized Finnish tests and the Boston Naming test. Correlations were investigated using Pearson’s coefficient values and PreRS at 5;0 for three groups with weak, average and good phonological skills at 3,6 were compared using ANOVA. Both paradigmatic and syntagmatic development at 3;6 were significantly associated with all later PreRS except RAN (correlations .28-.34). At 5;0, paradigmatic and syntagmatic development associated only with concurrent LK (r = .34-.40) The weak syntagmatic group (< 25th percentile) at 3;6 differed statistically significantly from the group with average skills in later phonological processing (F (2, 55)= 3.5, p = .037). Paradigmatic development at 3;6 did not differentiate the groups. These novel results highlight the association between early phonological development and later phonological processing and LK. Early phonology, especially the ability to combine phonemes at 3;6 has more predictive value for later PreRS compared to the measurement at 5;0, where phonological development seems to have reached the ceiling. When a toddler has challenges in phonological development, development of PreRS should also be followed.

Aalto, E., Saaristo-Helin, K., & Stolt, S. (2023). Associations between early pre-reading and phonological skills in the light of auditory word recognition and lexical ability. First Language, 43(3), 237–252

Puolakanaho, A. (2007). Early prediction of reading : phonological awareness and related language and cognitive skills in children with a familial risk for dyslexia. Jyväskylä University