Language Development, Literacy Skills, and Predictive Connections to Reading in Finnish Children With and Without Familial Risk for Dyslexia

• Published in: Journal of learning disabilities Vol. 43; no. 4; pp. 308 - 321
• Main Authors: Torppa, Minna, Lyytinen, Paula, Erskine, Jane, Eklund, Kenneth, Lyytinen, Heikki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2010; SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Age; Articulation Disorders - diagnosis; Articulation Disorders - psychology; Child of Impaired Parents - psychology; Child, Preschool; Children; Children with disabilities; Control Groups; Diagnostic Tests; Disability; Dyslexia; Dyslexia - etiology; Dyslexia - genetics; Dyslexia - psychology; Educational Status; Expressive Language; Familial factors; Female; Finland; Finnish language; Finno Ugric Languages; Foreign Countries; Genetics; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Intelligence Tests; Language Acquisition; Language Development; Language Tests; Learning disabilities; Literacy; Literacy skills; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Measures (Individuals); Morphological processing; Morphology; Morphology (Languages); Morphophonemics; Naming; Phonetics; Phonological Awareness; Phonological sensitivity; Phonology; Predictive Value of Tests; Preschool Children; Reading; Reading Acquisition; Reading comprehension; Reading Deficiencies; Reading Difficulties; Reading disabilities; Receptive Language; Refractory depression; Retrospective Studies; Risk; Risk Factors; Special education; Spelling; Finland; reading development; longitudinal study; early language development; dyslexia
• ISSN: 0022-2194; 1538-4780; 1538-4780
• DOI: 10.1177/0022219410369096

Discriminative language markers and predictive links between early language and literacy skills were investigated retrospectively in the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia in which children at familial risk for dyslexia have been followed from birth. Three groups were formed on the basis of 198 children’s reading and spelling status. One group of children with reading disability (RD; n = 46) and two groups of typical readers from nondyslexic control (TRC; n = 84) and dyslexic families (TRD; n = 68) were examined from age 1.5 years to school age. The RD group was outperformed by typical readers on numerous language and literacy measures (expressive and receptive language, morphology, phonological sensitivity, RAN, and letter knowledge) from 2 years of age onward. The strongest predictive links emerged from receptive and expressive language to reading via measures of letter naming, rapid naming, morphology, and phonological awareness.