Do early talkers become early readers? Linguistic precocity, preschool language, and emergent literacy.

Abstract

Twenty-five children, selected for verbal precocity at 20 months of age, participated in a longitudinal study investigating predictors of later language and literacy skills. Although children remained verbally precocious, there was a low incidence of precocious reading. Exposure to instruction in letter names and sounds was a significant predictor of children's knowledge of print conventions, invented spelling, and phonological awareness at age 4V2. Frequency of story reading in the home and child engagement in a story reading episode at age 24 months were significant predictors of children's language ability at age 2!h and Alh and knowledge of print conventions at age 4'/2. It is concluded that story reading with parents as well as literacy instruction contributes to the development of emergent literacy in verbally precocious children. What is the significance of verbal precocity? Are there implications for later related skills such as reading? Wells (1987) pointed out that literacy, like oral language, is acquired through a child's active sense making of data encountered in adult-child interaction. However, literacy, even more than oral language, seems to require specific kinds of input (e.g., books and print; McCormick & Mason, 1986; Snow, 1983). How dependent is literacy development on language skill compared with literacy exposure? The study reported here was undertaken to relate linguistically precocious children's early verbal skills, parentchild interaction patterns, and instructional experiences to their later language and literacy skills. We wondered, for example, whether early talkers would tend to become early readers, and if not, what experiences would determine who did. Little is known regarding the phenomenon of linguistic precocity. This article is based on one of the first studies to investigate longitudinally the development of children who talked early. Previous results of this project have demonstrated that exceptional language at 20 months is maintained at 24 months and 2'/2 years; however, linguistic precocity does not necessarily extend to nonverbal ability at these early ages (Robinson, Dale, & Landesman, 1990). In the present study, we had the opportunity to investigate the stability of linguistic precocity across a much wider age span. Thus, our first research question in