Pre-school oral language abilities are a key predictor of children’s literacy development. In this work package, we followed the Language 0-5 cohort and collected a variety of transition-to-literacy behavioural measures including expressive and productive vocabulary, knowledge of grammar, word reading, listening comprehension and reading comprehension in Year 2 of school. We related these to the unique set of measures collected in the first phase of LuCiD to determine how early language learning skills impact on word decoding and comprehension skills. Data collection was impacted by Covid lockdowns, so we additionally conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the relations between preschool oral language and early reading skills, and a further study of school-aged children’s acquisition of novel language structure, in line with our aims.

This work is important because it focused on a critical period in early language and literacy development. A better understanding of preschool language, cognition, and environmental factors influence learning to read can enhance reading instruction and inform more effective interventions for those at risk of reading difficulties.

We have produced an integrated dataset across measures taken between 0 to 7 years. The full Language 0-7 dataset includes data from both projects, comprising 33 participants with up to 1,980 observations of language, 495 observations of cognitive abilities, 264 observations of executive function, and 1,155 observations of environmental measures, from 6 to 54 months, and 99 observations of language skills, 66 observations of cognitive skills, 33 observations of environmental factors, and 297 observations of reading skills. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted retention due to family circumstances. Despite a small cohort, we have a large number of total observations captured across multiple time points (at least 20) and have sufficient variation required to perform critical analyses to explore the relations between preschool language, cognition, and environmental factors on learning to read. To date, we have not secured external funding to conduct additional analyses.

Project team

Kate Cain (Lead), Katie Alcock, Morten Christiansen, Lana Jago, Padraic Monaghan, Julian Pine, Meredith Rowe, Caroline Rowland and Anna Theakston

Duration

January 2020 – September 2022

Project number

3.3

Key outputs

Jago, L.S., Monaghan, P., Alcock, K.J., & Cain, K. (2025). The effect of preschool vocabulary and grammar on early reading comprehension and word reading: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, Vol 47, 100680

Monaghan, P., Jago, L.S., Speyer, L., Turnbull, H., Alcock, K.J., Rowland, C.F., & Cain, K. (2024). Statistical learning ability at 17 months relates to early reading skills via oral language. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Monaghan, P., Donnelly, S., Alcock, K., Bidgood, A., Cain, K., Durrant, S., Frost, R. L. A., Jago, L., Peter, M. S., Pine, J. M., Turnbull, H., & Rowland, C. F. (2023). Learning to generalise but not segment an artificial language at 17 months predicts children’s language skills 3 years later. Cognitive Psychology

Zhang, W., Monaghan, P., Bennett, S., & Rebuschat, P. (in press). Children’s simultaneous or successive acquisition of vocabulary and grammar: Evidence from cross-situational learning. Journal of Child Language, in press. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000925100135

References

1. Duff, F. J., Reen, G., Plunkett, K., & Nation, K. (2015). Do infant vocabulary skills predict school-age language and literacy outcomes? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56(8), 848-856.
2. Fricke, S., Bowyer-Crane, C., Haley, A. J., Hulme, C., & Snowling, M. J. (2013). Efficacy of language intervention in the early years. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(3), 280–290.
3. von Hippel, P., Workman, J., & Downey, D., (2017). Inequality in reading and math skills comes mainly from early childhood: A replication, and partial correction, of ‘Are schools the great equalizer?’. SSRN, WP 3036094.
4. Law, J., McBean, K., & Rush, R. (2011). Communication skills in a population of primary school‐aged children raised in an area of pronounced social disadvantage. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 46(6), 657-664.
5. Social Mobility Commission (2017). Social mobility in Great Britain: Fifth state of the nation report. UK Government.
6. Jones, G. & Rowland, C.(2017). Diversity not quantity in caregiver speech: using computational modeling to isolate the effects of the quantity and diversity of the input on vocabulary growth. Cognitive Psychology, 98, 1-21.
7. Monaghan, P., Chang, Y.N., Welbourne, S., & Brysbaert, M. (2017). Exploring the relations between word frequency, language exposure and bilingualism in a computational model of reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 93, 1-21.

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