Reading Development among Swedish Children: The Importance of Contextual Resources and Language Ability

Abstract

Language abilities in preschool years, including those measured with letter knowledge, are predictors of reading development in later school years. The aim of this study was to investigate variation in children’s language abilities before they started school in relation to gender and neighborhood level socioeconomic status (SES). Schools from three municipalities with varied resources and living conditions participated in this study. The participants were 231 children 4–6 years old (girls n = 117, boys n = 114; mean age 4.8 years old; SD = 6 months). In this cross-sectional study, children took the Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) object test and a Letter Knowledge task. Results showed no significant differences in task performance between boys and girls. Children attending preschools situated in average to above average SES areas had higher scores on the RAN object task compared to those who attended preschools located in low SES neighborhoods. Finally, a significant association was found between children’s first language and SES. The implications of these results are explored in this article.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschoolers
• RAN
• Gender
• SES
• Language skills
• Letter Knowledge

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

The language abilities of young children are important for their later school achievement and in particular for reading skills. At school age, girls on average are often outperforming boys in reading tests. In this study, we investigated the differences in language abilities in a group of 231 children attending preschool in Sweden, in relation to gender and neighbourhood level of socio-economic status. At this age, we found no significant differences between boys and girls, but we found that children attending preschool in areas with better socio-economic status had higher performance in language knowledge. Children that were not speaking the majority language at home also attended preschool in an area that had lower average socio-economic status. Based on these results, we recommend in preschool more resources to scaffold and stimulate language development especially among children who attend school in an area with fewer economic resources; and we recommend that, in elementary school, reading methods should be applied that are equally supporting boys’ and girls’ reading skills.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, the Swedish Research Council, Formas, and VINNOVA (dnr: 259-2012-71) as well as by Stiftelsen Clas Groschinskys Minnesfond and Stockholm University’s Centrum för kompetensutveckling inom vård och omsorg. Open access publishing was made possible by Stockholm University.

Notes on contributors

Birgitta Herkner

Birgitta Herkner Fil. lic in special education and university lecturer at Stockholm University. Birgitta has a background as primary school teacher and her teaching experiences of children, young people and adults both in adult education and in prisons have provided insight into the importance of early identification and early intervention for students with reading and writing difficulties. Birgitta has conducted research on the prevalence of dyslexia among inmates and research on reading development in primary education.