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Young children’s narrative skill: concurrent and predictive associations with emergent literacy and early word reading skills

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Abstract

Narrative skill is included in emergent literacy frameworks and believed to be important for children’s early reading development. Yet, empirical evidence concerning associations with other emergent literacy skills and later word reading skills is limited. We comprehensively assessed the emergent literacy skills of 3- to 5.5-year old children (n = 243), along with their word identification and decoding skills 2 years later. Narrative skill was modestly associated with all measures of emergent literacy. Narrative skill predicted word reading skills in univariate models but not after accounting for other emergent literacy skills. Further analyses showed that associations between narrative and word reading skills were fully mediated by other emergent literacy skills. When considered in light of prior work indicating associations between narrative skill and reading comprehension, these indirect associations between narrative and early word reading suggest a second pathway by which narrative skill may support reading development.

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Acknowledgements

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A110293 awarded to Michigan State University (Bowles, Skibbe) and The Ohio State University (Justice, Piasta). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. The authors gratefully acknowledge the research staff and participating children/families without whom this research would not be possible.

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  1. Kiren S. Khan

    Present address: Department of Psychology, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teaching and Learning and the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Shayne B. Piasta & Leiah J. Groom

  2. Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Kiren S. Khan

  3. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI, USA

    Lori E. Skibbe & Ryan P. Bowles

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  1. Shayne B. Piasta
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Correspondence to Shayne B. Piasta.

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Table 5 Description of reviewed studies by sample, narrative measure, and outcomes examined
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Piasta, S.B., Groom, L.J., Khan, K.S. et al. Young children’s narrative skill: concurrent and predictive associations with emergent literacy and early word reading skills. Read Writ 31, 1479–1498 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9844-7

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