Developmental changes in the neuropsychological correlates of reading achievement: A six-year longitudinal followup

Abstract

The present study examined two hypotheses concerning developmental changes in the neuropsychological performance correlates of reading achievement. Hypothesis 1 predicted that measures of earlier developing skills important for beginning reading (sensorimotor-perceptual) contributed more to the variability in reading achievement when predicting from kindergarten performance to reading achievement in Grades 2 and 5. Hypothesis 2 predicted that measures of later developing skills important for more advanced phases of reading acquisition (verbal-conceptual) explained more of the variability in reading achievement when concurrent assessments of achievement and neuropsychological performance were made in Grade 5. Results based on repeat assessments on the same children over time were in agreement with these hypotheses. When predicting from kindergarten performance to reading achievement in Grades 2 and 5, measures of sensorimotor-perceptual skills explained more of the variability in reading achievement. In contrast, measures of verbal-conceptual skills explained more of the concurrent validity in discriminating reading level at older ages (i.e., Grade 5 performance—Grade 5 criteria).