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Phonological processing and emergent literacy in Spanish-speaking preschool children

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Abstract

Phonological awareness (PA), phonological memory (PM), and phonological access to lexical storage (also known as RAN), play important roles in acquiring literacy. We examined the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of these phonological processing abilities (PPAs) in 147 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children whose native language was Spanish. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the validity of each PPA as separate from general cognitive ability and separate from each other. Moreover, structural equation modeling found RAN uniquely associated with knowledge of Spanish letter names and Spanish letter sounds. PA was found the best predictor of children’s ability to distinguish alphabetic text from nonalphabetic text. Finally, general cognitive ability was only indirectly associated with emergent literacy skills via PPAs. These results highlight the importance of PPAs in the early literacy development of native Spanish speaking preschool children.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Developmental Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 7000 Fannin Street, Suite 2377, 77030, Houston, TX

    Jason L. Anthony

  2. University of Houston, USA

    Jeffrey M. Williams, Coleen D. Carlson & David J. Francis

  3. Southern Methodist University, USA

    Renee McDonald & Deborah Corbitt-Shindler

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  1. Jason L. Anthony
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  2. Jeffrey M. Williams
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  3. Renee McDonald
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  4. Deborah Corbitt-Shindler
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  5. Coleen D. Carlson
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  6. David J. Francis
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Correspondence to Jason L. Anthony.

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Anthony, J.L., Williams, J.M., McDonald, R. et al. Phonological processing and emergent literacy in Spanish-speaking preschool children. Ann. of Dyslexia 56, 239–270 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-006-0011-5

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