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.

摘要

学龄前儿童的语言能力，包括那些用字母知识衡量的能力，是晚学年阅读发展的预测指标。本研究的目的是调查儿童在入学前语言能力与性别和邻里社会经济地位 (SES) 之间的差异。来自三个拥有不同资源和生活条件的城市的学校参与了这项研究。参与者是 231 名 4-6 岁的儿童（女孩 n = 117，男孩 n = 114；平均年龄 4.8 岁；SD = 6 个月）。在这项横断面研究中，儿童参加了快速自动命名 (RAN) 对象测试和字母知识任务。结果表明，男孩和女孩在任务表现上没有显着差异。与在低 SES 社区上学前班的儿童相比，在平均到高于平均 SES 地区上学的儿童在 RAN 目标任务中得分更高。最后，在儿童的母语和社会经济地位之间发现了显着的关联。本文探讨了这些结果的含义。