Early Childhood Research Quarterly

We examined the relationships among language and code-related abilities between preschool and grade one to test the hypothesis that code- and language-related abilities that the Simple View of Reading describes as distinct emerge from an early period when they are interrelated. We assessed multiple language abilities, phonological awareness, and letter-word knowledge in a sample of 489 predominantly African-American children from low-income homes. In preschool, kindergarten, and first grade we found significant positive correlations among measures of language, phonological awareness, and letter-word knowledge, and cross-age continuity in constructs. Using path and mediational analysis, we found effects of early language on later code-related skills and grade one reading. We also found effects of code-based skills on language. Vocabulary plays a central role in carrying early language effects and is the language ability most strongly associated with early reading. Discourse abilities have direct and indirect effects on emerging language abilities. Letter-word knowledge strongly predicts later letter-word knowledge and grade one reading and decoding. We found effects of early letter-word knowledge and phonological skills awareness in prekindergarten and kindergarten on first grade reading and decoding, accounting for intelligence, age, and gender. The direct and indirect effect combination of those early skills accounted for 32.1% of the variance in first grade reading and 29.3% of the variance in first grade decoding. Early language skills accounted for 9.5% of first grade reading and 7.8% of first grade decoding. Our results call into question the assumption of the Simple View of Reading that reading comprehension draws on two strands of competence that are initially distinct.