Hanne Næss Hjetland|Ellen Irén Brinchmann|Ronny Scherer|Monica Melby?Lervåg
Preschool predictors of later reading comprehension ability: a systematic review
campbell systematic review examines relationships skills preschool later reading comprehension review summarizes evidence 64 longitudinal studies observed relationships coderelated skills preschool eg phoneme awareness letter knowledge indirectly related reading comprehension via word decoding linguistic comprehension directly related reading comprehension skills coderelated skills linguistic comprehension strongly related moreover language comprehension important reading comprehension older readers younger readers plain language summary preschool language skills associated better reading comprehension school evidence suggests successful instruction reading comprehension target broad set language skills review brief variety language skills related language comprehension eg vocabulary grammar coderelated skills eg phonological awareness letter knowledge important developing decoding skills turn reading comprehension school thus reading comprehension instruction likely successful focuses broad set language skills review determining provide best instruction support childrens reading comprehension requires understanding reading comprehension actually develops promote understanding process review summarizes evidence observations development language reading comprehension preschool years school main outcome review reading comprehension skills aim review campbell systematic review examines relationships skills preschool later reading comprehension review summarizes evidence 64 longitudinal studies observed relationships understanding development reading comprehension precursors help us develop hypotheses effective instruction must comprise facilitate wellfunctioning reading comprehension skills hypotheses tested randomized controlled trials studies included review includes studies observe relationship preschool language coderelated skills later reading comprehension total 64 studies identified included analysis however several suffered considerable attrition used convenience sampling included selected sample failed report important study sample characteristics studies spanned 1986 2016 mostly performed usa europe australia main findings review coderelated skills preschool eg phoneme awareness letter knowledge indirectly related reading comprehension via word decoding linguistic comprehension directly related reading comprehension skills coderelated skills linguistic comprehension strongly related moreover language comprehension important reading comprehension older readers younger readers findings review mean results show broad set language skills important developing reading comprehension results also suggest successful instruction reading comprehension target broad set language skills future studies effectiveness instruction targets set must tested randomized controlled trials additionally future longitudinal studies address issues reliability missing data representativeness uptodate review review authors searched studies 2016 campbell systematic review published december 2017 executive summaryabstract background knowledge preschool predictors later reading comprehension valuable several reasons general level longitudinal studies aid generating understanding causal hypotheses language literacy development crucial processes child development better understanding developmental processes may guide establishment effective instruction interventions teach reading comprehension later tested randomized controlled trials knowledge preschool precursors reading comprehension skills also aid developing tools identify children risk reading difficulties objectives primary objective systematic review summarize available research correlation readingrelated preschool predictors later reading comprehension skills search methods developed comprehensive search strategy collaboration search information retrieval specialist university library electronic search based seven different databases also manually searched table contents three key journals find additional references finally checked studies included two previous systematic reviews selection criteria included studies employ longitudinal nonexperimentalobservational design avoid overrepresentation participants special group affiliation eg participants learning disabilities second language learner status chose studies included either sample typically developing children unselected cohort data collection analysis search resulted 3285 references duplicates removed remaining references screened inclusion exclusion total 64 studies met eligibility criteria analysis conducted two steps first predictive relation abilities assessed preschool later reading comprehension skills analyzed using comprehensive metaanalysis cma software second used correlation matrices included studies explore relations means metaanalytic structural equation modeling results first analyses bivariate correlations showed included predictors except nonword repetition moderately strongly correlated later reading comprehension bivariate analyses nonword repetition weak moderate contribution later reading comprehension ability explain betweenstudy variation conducted series metaregression analyses age time reading assessment could predict variations studies correlations related coderelated predictors second metaanalytic structural equation modeling showed significant indirect effect coderelated skills reading comprehension via consecutive word recognition third strong relationship preschool language comprehension coderelated skills language comprehension moderate direct impact reading comprehension hypothesized impact increased age linguistic comprehension becomes important reading comprehension children master decoding moreover overall individual variance reading comprehension explained model 595 consecutive word recognition 476 authors conclusions overall findings show foundation reading comprehension established preschool years development language comprehension coderelated skills coderelated skills decoding important reading comprehension beginning readers linguistic comprehension gradually takes children become older taken together results suggest need broad focus language preschoolage children