Identification of predictors of emergent literacy

peer reviewedTwo studies examined the predictive value of a range of variables associated with young children on their later literacy. Study 1 involved children age 5 to 7 from Serbia (N = 159); Study 2 engaged children age 4 to 6 from Luxembourg (N = 174). Children in Study 1 were assessed on entry to school, aged 5, and again at age 7. Children in Study 2 were assessed once, in preschool. In Study 1, multilevel models indicated that a baseline assessment administrated in school language at the age of 5, in particular with respect to their competence in mathematics, were the most significant predictors of children’s emergent literacy at the age of 7 after controlling for age, gender, vocabulary, and phonological awareness. In Study 2, gender, vocabulary, phonological awareness, and competence in mathematics at the age of 5 were significant predictors of emergent literacy at the same age, after controlling for age, test administered in school language, and behavior. The level of parental education in Study 1 and the children’s behavior in both studies proved not to be significant. Both studies have important educational implications, suggesting that practitioners should assess language-minority children at the start of school in their mother tongue and act upon the outcomes of those assessments to avoid later literacy problems.Ph