What Early Skills Predict Reading Development in Bilingual Children?

What is it about?

Literacy precursors are cognitive, linguistic, and oral-language skills that predict future reading skills in young children. Speech-language pathologists and educators utilize these precursor skills within literacy assessment tools to identify children who are at risk for reading difficulties so that they can provide intervention as early as possible. However, most literacy assessment tools are developed based on monolinguals (predominantly in English), despite the significant percentage of bilinguals globally. Due to the lack of appropriate literacy assessment tools developed for bilinguals and in languages beyond English, bilingual children are typically assessed on tools developed for monolinguals in research and clinical settings. Despite this common practice, there is a lack of comprehensive synthesis on whether these literacy precursors, used in literacy assessment practices, are a reliable indicator of reading skills in bilingual children. Our article examines whether early language skills, commonly-known as literacy precursors, commonly used with monolinguals are associated with reading development in simultaneous bilingual children. This includes three main types of literacy precursors: code-related, oral-language, and domain-general cognitive skills in addition to other precursors. To do so, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis across four databases (Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, Educational Resources Information Center, Modern Language Association, and PsycINFO), in addition to gray-literature and manual reference-list searches.

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Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash

Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The review will contribute to equity and linguistic/cultural diversity in the field of speech-language pathology by representing linguistically-diverse bilingual populations. We identify certain precursors, including phonological awareness and vocabulary measures, which can form a meaningful component of early literacy assessment in simultaneous bilingual children. These precursors may be used as assessment tools across heritage and societal languages in research and clinical practice.

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