A new LuCiD study of children aged 17 months to 7 years has brought new insights into the learning of young children as they transition from preschool into primary school. Children vary in their early language and reading skills in the first few years of school. Our latest study shows that children's ability to learn relations between rather abstract speech sounds can predict children's language and early reading development. The study shows that the way that children are learning before the age of two is affecting their learning in school more than five years later. This is important to help us understand the best ways to support the learning development of young children.
Language skills when children enter school are related to their general ability to learn relations between speech sounds, and these language skills, in turn, have a profound impact on learning to read. Learning to read is complex and takes a long time for children to master. Therefore, knowing what contributes to children learning those skills, is vital to be able to support children effectively in their early schooling.
The research team combined researchers across LuCiD, in Lancaster, Liverpool, and Manchester Universities and the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen. The study was part of LuCiD’s longitudinal research that followed 80 children from the first year of their life up to the end of preschool and then into primary school.
Following the same children throughout the study enabled our team to look at how particular skills and abilities unfold and are expressed over the first critical years of life. We found that children’s ability to find words in a new language at 17 months related to their vocabulary development over the first 3 years of life. But from the age of 4 upwards, children’s ability to learn the rules of the novel language at 17 months (relating to how we learn to put words into sentences) predicted their vocabulary and also their early reading skills.
It is known that children's language skills in the first few years of life are important and able to predict how children will learn throughout school. There are also significant longer-term life outcomes that can be affected by these skills. This longitudinal research has enabled the team to uncover many of the ways in which early language develops and how caregivers and preschool staff can help to support children's early learning.
Professor Padraic Monaghan said: “This work is the culmination of a project where we followed children's language development over the first seven years of their life. It has shown us fascinating insights into how very early learning skills have a long-term impact on children's language skills and learning to read.”
Distinguished Professor Kate Cain said: “The link between children’s oral language skills in preschool and learning to read is well established. This research sheds light on how language learning during the first two years of life affects this connection."
Reference:
- 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
Author
Prof Padraic Monaghan
Padraic is Professor of Cognition at Lancaster University and one of our co-investigators. His research interests include language acquisition, language evolution, literacy development, and the effects of sleep on learning and memory.